Dead from the Beginning
by Pikachu4Prezident
Summary: The Infection has spread as far as the eye can see. However, Earth isn't the only place that the Infection has hit... Four survivors will save Brandonopolis from total infection. Rated T for mild language.
1. Dead in Their Tracks: The Suburbia

**Dead from the Beginning – A Left 4 Dead Original Story**

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT own any of the Left 4 Dead franchise, none of the characters in it, Special Infected, living, or otherwise, etc. I DO own my own original characters and scenarios and whatever else I may create.**

**Author's Note: Please feel free to make any sort of suggestions regarding my story. Like any special infected, crescendo events, uncommon infected, or anything. There will be five campaigns, with those shorter ones to bridge gaps between the campaigns (like "Crash Course" from Left 4 Dead 1 and the upcoming Left 4 Dead 2's "The Passing"). This is my first story on here, so don't expect too much. There will be things based on the game, as you will see follow…**

* * *

Characters in Dead from the Beginning:

Gilbert Rochester: A young 17 year old man who loves to play video games, read tons of manga, and has a knack for getting into a bit of trouble and adventure for the hell of it. But when a virus arrived and zombified all of his college friends, Gilbert has found a new hobby to spend his time doing…killing thousands of infected. And with his new friends, there's not a thing in the world that'll bore him. (Based a bit on Ellis and Louis, he is both silly at times and an optimist.)

Hank Thompson: A former convict and former member of the biker gang "Halls of Death", Hank isn't afraid of anything if it involves handling a gun. Where people stockpiled supplies and went to hide or escape, Hank grabbed the closest gun he could find and popped many caps in many asses. There were no laws, no rules…if it wasn't because of the zombies prowling about, Hank could get used to life like this. (Mostly based heavily on Francis; besides, he is my favorite character from the first game.)

Fredrick Manson: The oldest member of this four man crew, Fredrick used to be part of the Brandonopolis Special Forces. With a massive amount of medals and honors, several life-threatening injuries, and a lot of magazines burned through, the unthinkable happened; Freddy ran out of wars to fight. Despite this, now a virus has infected the entire world, he has gotten what he has wanted again…an enemy to fight, and with how many years had passed, he should be glad his efforts won't be wasted. (As the description states, he's mostly based upon Bill.)

Yuki Everlife: A mysterious girl who met up with the group in tears, trying to escape the infection. Nothing is known about who she is, or where she came from, but the Infection has hit her hard, physically and mentally. With her new allies by her side, she hopes to see the Infection eradicated from the face of the Earth. (She is actually not based on anyone from the games. She's an Original Character).

* * *

First Campaign: Dead in Their Tracks

Chapter 1: The Suburbia

"All train routes are dead stopped, and nobody's getting out tonight."

Make your way to Grand Laine Metro and hijack a train out of a hellish city.

* * *

*The year is 2159. It's still late afternoon over a burning city, but the sun is beginning to go down. A massive virus has broken out widespread in Video Game World. A helicopter passes overhead as it calls out to any possible survivors, though the outlook is grim. However, four people are standing on the roof of an apartment complex, watching as the helicopter zooms past.*

"To anyone who can hear this, please proceed to the nearest train station to evacuate from Laine City. Repeat; proceed to your local train station to evacuate immediately."

*A young man is seen cleaning his pistol. He is a white male, wearing a bucket hat, a shirt with his favorite band's logo inscribed on it, and wearing a blue jacket over it. His jeans are white, but grime and dirt makes them appear gray. He has the slightest wisp of peach fuzz on his face, and his voice sounds a bit higher pitched than most people (since he is younger).*

"I don't know how that guy doesn't look over HERE. He could've set his spotlight on us and had us delivered out of here hours ago." says the young man.

*A tall, broad man with a bushy mustache and short brown beard steps forward. He has a stained grey shirt and is wearing an elaborate biker's vest, and brown pants. His voice sounds rather gruff.*

"Maybe he doesn't want to crash into a building and kill himself." says the biker.

"Very cute. That doesn't make me feel any better." the young man nervously replies.

*An old soldier walks towards the table where these four have set up. He has a soldier's helmet on his head, and is wearing what looks to be a special ops uniform. He has a long, white beard and several medals on his uniform.*

"Cut your crap. We have to get out of this town, or else we aren't going to survive this hell storm." the old man utters in annoyance. "Did you not notice? He said to get to your nearest train station. This means Grand Laine Metro Station. We can cut through this neighborhood and take some shortcuts…but it'll be risky."

The young man replies to the old man. "I'm going to agree with you. First things first, though. We need to get off of this building. It won't be as easy getting down as it was getting up. Those things will probably be waiting for us."

The biker nods in agreement. "Guess we have no other choice. Let's head for the metro station!"

*A young girl, looking no older than at least ten years old, is picking up a crowbar. She has blue and green hair with red eyes. She's wearing a simple white dress that is tattered and blood-stained.*

"I sense them…the Infected. They are in the building. Everyone…you may want to grab a weapon…" the young girl says.

The others grab their own weapons. The young man grabs a machete, the biker grabs a lead pipe, and the old man grabs up an axe. They open the door and begin their descent into hell.

In the apartment, infected are absolutely everywhere. They walk about in the room the group just entered…until they notice them. They quickly start to tear them up with their weapons as they descend further. Within minutes, they come across an elevator, but…

"Aw, damn it. This elevator's dead, guys. We will have to find another way out of here." the young man says, much to his disappointment.

They turn around quickly to keep going down stairs after sets of stairs. Soon, they come to a huge, gaping hole in the floor, presumably leading to nothing but darkness. The biker shines a light into it, and sees something solid to land on.

"There's a platform or something! It could be a way out!" says the biker.

Not one person argued. They all jumped down into the hole. Sure enough, they all landed on something metal. They find their selves on a massive platform with tank treads.

The young girl is the first to find the controls and activates the platform. The whole platform lurches forward and picks up speed as they go through the tunnel.

The biker finally speaks. "Anybody get bit on the way down? The LAST thing I need is someone transforming into one of those freaks."

The young man replies. "No, I think we're fine. Say, we didn't get to properly acquaint ourselves earlier. Now should be the time. The name's Gilbert. Gilbert Rochester. You?"

The biker follows up. "Hank Thompson. I gotta say, you do well with a weapon."

"Thank you kindly, sir." Gilbert says.

"I'm Fredrick Manson. I thought the wars I've been through were enough…but this…"

They didn't need any explanation. It has been hell getting to the apartment they just left. With a military back-story like Fred's, obviously it is hard to get used to war again.

Gilbert turns towards the young girl. "And who might you be, little miss?"

The young girl looks up, startled for a second, but quickly drops her guard and tension.

"Y-Yuki. Yuki Everlife."

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Yuki." Gilbert tips his hat off to her. Yuki follows this by smiling faintly.

The whole tank platform stops at what appears to be a dead end. It isn't. Instead, it is a gate to the outside. All they have to do is get it open. The tank itself, however, won't go any further, as it has hit a stopper.

"Well, I can probably expect that we're going to get some company here in a minute if we try to get this door to open." Gilbert said, with a twinge of…fear.

He hits the switch and the gate opens, producing a series of loud squeaks of metal forcing its way outward.

/!\ Gilbert has alerted the horde.

A massive yell is produced from the oncoming horde, and in a matter of seconds, a huge wave of Common Infected descends upon the small group of survivors.

"LOOK OUT!" screamed Gilbert, and the fight began. Although it looked as if they would be overwhelmed any second, they managed to fight it out. Within thirty seconds, the horde was defeated. At least 40 zombies lay dead at the group's feet.

Gilbert yells in excitement. "Yeah!!! We kicked those zombies around 'til they couldn't stand up anymore!!!"

"Don't get too excited. We've only just gotten out of an apartment and that was just our first horde. Let's not throw a party until we're out of the city." said Fredrick.

Gilbert calms down, and realizes they've only just begun their trek through this now dead world. Not a moment too soon, they walk out into the open. The sun is steadily going down over the horizon. The group finds a road and walks onto it. Miles of cars are piled up on the road, and there are no people inside any of them at all.

Yuki looks upon the cars as they pass them. Several that she passes have still corpses inside the driver seat. In one car, an entire family sits dead. "These…poor people. What did this? Who did this?" she says with melancholy.

Gilbert immediately replies to her question. "I don't know. But I know one thing for sure…it probably wasn't due to any thing good."

They come to another apparent dead end. Hank quickly tells the group otherwise.

"Over that dumpster!"

They quickly follow Hank over the absurdly large dumpster.

They keep following the road before finally reaching another impasse in the form of a semi blocking the bottom path of the overpass off.

Fredrick gives a sigh. "Poor, poor idiots blocked off the streets and everything they could. All it may have taken was just only one infected to turn the entire city."

Gilbert takes a short glance to see any other alternate paths. He sees the rest of the overpass still intact. A hill is leading up to the overpass.

Gilbert exclaims to the group as fast as he can. "Hey, guys! I've found another way we can go!"

Quicker the courses than they could possibly go, they trudge their way up the hill and onto the overpass. They walk for a few yards before encountering a part of the overpass completely destroyed.

Hank isn't pleased at all. "We come this damn far to encounter THIS?! What a waste of my time and life."

Gilbert, clearly not one to listen to Hank rant about the destroyed overpass, redirects Hank's view towards a parked semi, parked partially underneath the overpass.

Hank averts his current attitude. "Oh. My bad…"

They jump onto the semi and quickly jump off into the road again. Yuki takes account of a red car flashing orange lights on the inside, and avoids it as much as she can.

"Don't shoot that car. Infected have strong ears, you know…"

They didn't need to be told twice. They avoided the alarmed car with much care.

Seconds after encountering the car, they come across a stop sign that has been tampered with. It has the shape of a house with a symbolic cross in the middle.

Yuki knows the meaning of the symbol. "Safe house…we are almost to one."

Fredrick sighs in relief. "Thank the gods. I can see it ahead in that Tornado Gas Station. Be careful not to shoot anything that even looks the least bit explosive…"

They quickly run into the safe house and slam the door shut. Inside is a full set of health packs, guns, and the like.

Gilbert takes a deep breath and slumps against the wall. It's pretty clear that he is exhausted and scared out of his wits. "Man…I can't believe we made it. There weren't too many zombies…"

Fredrick interrupts Gilbert in the middle of his banter. "We may have gotten through here now, but don't relax yet. We still have zombies to kill. And we're not in the fullest concentration of the zombies either. That's your reason, kid. Anybody who needs to heal up, do it now. We've got a long road ahead of us if we intend to get to the metro station."

And there ended their first run through the newly infected land. But they have much to endure if they intend to escape and live to tell the tale.

* * *

So, that's my first foray into the whole fan fiction. Please leave me some reviews and let me know what you think! Also, feel free to give any suggestions on how I can improve here.


	2. Dead in Their Tracks: The City Streets

Dead in Their Tracks

Chapter 2 – The City Streets

Same disclaimer as last chapter.

The group is still in the safe house, resting for a few minutes before trekking back out into the dangerous world of the Infected.

Hank picks up a shotgun and examines it. "Well, this will be fun to travel with. It's still in top condition. I ought to call you Old Faithful…but if I switch you out to an auto-shottie…you'll be SO kickass."

Gilbert is seen sniping infected with an Uzi. "Looks like playing first-person shooters have finally paid off." Gilbert says with a hearty chuckle.

Yuki has her eyes closed. The group thinks she has fallen asleep, but her eyes spring open, telling the group completely otherwise. "I sense some new Infected… These have some new powers or something… Be careful when dealing with them. Some can grab you, pin you down, and other things…"

"Uh…good to know…" Gilbert say, though he looks a bit uncomfortable saying it.

Yuki grabs a hunting rifle, and Fredrick grabs an Uzi like Gilbert's. They all heal up, grab another health kit, and open the safe room door. Outside, there's an abundance of common infected.

"Here they come!" Hank yells. The infected begin running at the survivors, but they make quick work of the infected. After the short little attack, they start to move through the now deserted city, killing infected as they go.

"The zombie population is becoming heavier than when we were in the apartment, I swear. I must wonder…will I kill 53, 596 zombies before this is all over?" Gilbert mutters.

Hank retorts at the number of zombies stated by Gilbert. "Yeah, like you'll kill that many before we get out of the city."

"Hehe. I know that." Gilbert says.

All of a sudden, they hear coughing. Completely unaware of what it is, they continue trucking along. In a split second however, something wraps around Fredrick and pulls him away!

"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Fredrick yells in terror. He doesn't know what is going on, but soon, he is pulled close to the menace. A tall infected is now clawing at him. The infected is wearing a brown jacket with a stained white shirt and green pants. It has a massive black tumor of growth on its face.

"TOUNGE THING!!!" Gilbert yells. Everyone chases after to where Fredrick is now being constricted by this new specimen of infected. Gilbert pumps the infected full of lead and it explodes, leaving behind a cloud of smoke. Fredrick falls to the ground, incapacitated.

Hank quickly gets Fredrick to his feet. "You all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine…but what the hell was that thing?"

"I don't know." Hank begins coughing, and leads everyone away from the smoke cloud.

"That was one of the new types of the infected. We didn't encounter them at all previously. They are called Special Infected. That one…if given the chance…would've crushed his bones with his tongue…" Yuki says.

"Yeesh…" Gilbert thought. "And I thought getting bitten was enough."

"Okay…and that thing was coughing and everything… Do these things have their own noises they make?" Hank asks.

No reply from Yuki, but she nods her head in affirming.

"Great… Keeping track of regular infected was just fine by me. Now we have to listen out for each one? That's something I never signed up for." Hank rants again.

"Shut up, Hank. If the zombies don't end up killing us, your rants sure will." Gilbert says, rather annoyed.

A short chortle from Fredrick and Yuki.

"Man…let's just stop standing around. Let's move, people!"

The group is moving along again, heading into an alleyway, but it isn't long before strange gurgling noises are heard by the group.

Fredrick is baffled by the noise. "What the hell is that?"

Hank doesn't answer, but looks around a corner. Almost immediately, he gets splattered by a green, glistening substance.

Hank stumbles back in disgust. "Ugh! What is this stuff?!"

Hank was just about to find out. A massive screech is heard and a massive horde descends upon not all of the survivors, but only Hank. A morbidly obese infected walks out in front of Hank and begins scratching at him.

Gilbert quickly shoots the infected, and it explodes, sending more green substance splashing onto Hank, and knocking back the crowd of infected and Hank at the same time. They all quickly shoot down the infected as fast as they can, and soon, the horde that was sent after them has died off thanks to the gun skills of the rest of the group.

Hank's not pleased after that little encounter. He smells his jacket, and rears his head back violently. "Aw, man! This stuff smells even worse than a rotten egg!!!"

It was true. Everyone's eyes started to tear up as they put their hands over their noses. The green substance stank like sewage and many other bad things, and Hank's jacket was absolutely sopping wet with the stuff.

"Man, if we find a Laundromat or someplace here, you'd better get washed up! That stuff reeks!" Gilbert said with disgust.

They keep walking through the alleys before finally coming to an area with high rise buildings. Creepy growling is heard somewhere. The group keeps moving, but Yuki stops to survey the area for the source of the growling.

"What…is that…?" Yuki says. The answer quickly jumps at her, pins her to the ground, and begins to tear her stomach apart.

Yuki screams and the group is alerted to the threat's presence. The three shove it to the ground off of Yuki, and Hank kills it point blank with his shotgun.

"Damn these things. I guess these things won't quit 'til we're dead." said Hank.

Gilbert gives a sigh of relief. He helps Yuki back up to her feet, but her stomach is a bloody mess now.

"Just stand still…this is my first time doing this…healing thing." says Gilbert as he patches Yuki's injuries up. In a minute, Yuki is feeling better now.

Yuki looks at Gilbert. "Th-thank you…"

"Hey, you know I wouldn't leave anybody behind, now would you?" says Gilbert.

Gilbert looks ahead and sees something that looks familiar to him.

"Hey! I see that gun store up ahead! There might be supplies in there!" Gilbert yells to his team. They make their way around grate fencing and up stairs until the finally get to it.

Inside, they see a whole plethora of guns, from shotguns to desert eagles. All of them: expensively priced.

"Well…whoever sold these things must've been low on money. Probably the reason the people died was the prices on these guns. Let's just grab some them. I don't think who owns the place will mind much." says Gilbert.

They pick up the weapons they like. Gilbert picks up a SPAS-12 combat shotgun, but keeps his machete with him (because he loves using it). Hank picks up a tactical auto shotgun, and renames it "Badass Faithful", and takes a desert eagle with him as well. Fredrick grabs up an M-16 assault rifle, and takes two pistols with him. Yuki drops her hunting rifle in favor of a superior sniper rifle, but keeps her crowbar, because "it reminds her of somebody she's a fan of".

Gilbert fully equips himself with everything, pain pills, adrenaline, pipe bomb, Molotov cocktail…just whatever he could find. So does everyone else. They also grab laser sights, just in case.

They find a talk box by the door and push the button.

An old voice emits from the box.

"Hello there, name's Clifford. I have barricaded myself up here with a lot of ample provisions. And I know where you folks are trying to go. But, in my hasty escape to my safe room, I managed to forget some things. They're my personal belongings, to remember my wife by…who got eaten by those damned zombies. Also, there are some snacks for me packed beside the box too. A man has to have a bit of stuff to keep him satiated. Don't worry; I strapped both of them together prior to today. But anyways, here is my proposition. If you can get my memoirs and food, I'll clear your path into that subway for you. Hell, those guns you took from me and those laser sights, and everything else? I'll throw them in, free of charge."

Hank chimes in. "Sir, if you let me keep Badass Faithful, I'll do anything you want."

"Well said. Now, please get what I requested at that convenience store you'll see coming up these stairs." Clifford says. The door next to the talk box opens up, and the group goes up the stairs. Sure enough, they see the 99 Common Cents convenience store as they exit the gun shop.

"You'd best be hurrying up. I can just sit back and watch you die out there, you know!" Clifford yelled over the intercom.

Hank's angry side unearths itself again. "Hey, asshole! We can just sit out here on out asses and do nothing for the rest of the day! If you're that hungry, go find an Arbor Meat McKing somewhere and make something yourself!"

Gilbert is a bit miffed at Hank's outburst. "Hank, please. The last thing we want you doing is making someone else lose our trust."

They open the door, but an alarm sounds and inevitably attracts a horde…

/!\ Crescendo Event engaged. Get the memoirs and food to Clifford to clear the path of the car pileup and tanker.

"Go! Get the dude's things and let's run for it!" Gilbert yells as they run into the convenience store. Everyone but Yuki heeds the command. Infected begin to flood into the store.

Gilbert, being a bit faster than the others, grabs the memoirs and food.

"All right, I've got Cliff's stuff! Let's haul ass out of here and get this stuff to him!" Gilbert says with much gusto.

They don't hesitate. They run back to the front of the store. Yuki has been standing there the entire time, and has suddenly gained a backpack. The shelves have been cleaned somehow. Disregarding that, they begin to kill the massive horde, but the infected won't stop and just keep coming.

The group, with Yuki now following them out of the store, makes their run back to Clifford's safe room. The tall infected and hooded infected return to make the group's life a living hell, but short work is made of them. Hank throws a Molotov, and burns tons of infected, but ends up stalling the team's progress by blocking the path with a wall of flame. Worse yet, some infected run through the fire, but are completely unrivaled by it.

Hank is in complete shock. "These things are now fireproof? I never thought I'd see _**that**_."

Regardless of this, the fireproof infected die just as easily as any other infected. The fire dies down, but the horde isn't stopping yet. They quickly make their way up the stairs and reach the door.

"Put my items into the slot! Quickly!" Clifford hurriedly exclaims.

Gilbert quickly opens the slot and puts Clifford's items in there.

For a scary second, nothing happens, and Gilbert and the group believe that Clifford went against his word, wanting his memoirs and snacks in trade for their lives. All of a sudden, something is shot at the tanker, and destroys it in a spectacular explosion. Clifford didn't go against his word. The time he took was to prepare his grenade launcher to destroy the blockade on the road. The alarm suddenly shut off, due to the power lines being damaged in the explosion, cutting the power to the alarm and shutting it down completely.

The group takes a hefty sigh. They had thought Clifford left them to die. Thankfully, they were wrong.

"Good luck to you all. And may my late wife's soul be watching over you as you venture through this wasteland. You have my blessing." Clifford says seconds after destroying the tanker.

Gilbert replies, though he's a bit shaken up by the fact the he thought Clifford almost forgot about them. "Thank you, Cliff…you stay safe, buddy."

They leave the door, and walk past the now completely destroyed tanker.

Up ahead, they see the subway entrance in a dead end. They've made it to the safe room.

"There's the safehouse, down in that subway! We've pretty much made it!"

However, as if on cue, something roars loudly. A car is thrown into the group's path, and narrowly misses them.

Fredrick is shocked. "What in Mary Francis was that?"

That's when they saw it. A huge hulking zombie rushes towards them. This zombie in particular has a massive muscular build and a really small head.

Gilbert yells. "Light that thing up!!!"

The monstrous zombie comes swinging at them with huge, meaty fists, but he continuously misses the survivors. He salvages for it by grabbing up some concrete and throwing it at the survivors. Gilbert is struck by the flying slab of stone. He gets knocked off of his feet for a second, but manages to get back up, but rather shakily.

They continue firing until the thing finally goes down. It falls to its knees, and then falls forward and hits the pavement with a thud, dead.

The survivors are slightly beaten up, but they managed to take down a major threat. Gilbert has had the wind knocked out of him, however, and is limping and breathing heavily.

"Man…god knows how hard that thing really throws…." Gilbert says.

Fredrick gives him support as Gilbert nearly doubles over. "Hold on, kid. We're almost there. Just hang in there."

As Fredrick helps Gilbert into the safe house, Yuki and Hank take point, looking out for any infected that may approach them and hurt Gilbert more than he is now.

To their surprise, the area was now surprisingly devoid of infected. The sun had now disappeared over the horizon, and the landscape began to get dark. They turned a corner and saw the safe house door. They get inside and finally are safe again…for now, of course.

Gilbert looked pretty beaten up, having endured taking gruff from the infected that were attacking him while he was carrying Clifford's things, and the piece of road from the huge infected. He wasn't the best looking person in the group at the moment, but he wasn't dead either.

"Damn those zombies. They got me good. Especially that big guy…" said Gilbert, wheezing in pain. Yuki came upon the realization that Gilbert has had a long history of asthma problems, and his encounter with that zombie hurt him something fierce.

Yuki then gives Gilbert…her health pack.

Gilbert looks up at her, surprised. But he follows up. "Thanks." He uses it and in no time, he somehow feels better now.

Yuki smiles. She is now starting to show a bit more emotion than earlier.

Hank smirks at the scene, in a nice way. "Well, there goes round two of our little adventure. Let's relax for a bit. Anyone have something to eat?"

Yuki's response is to sling her backpack off of her shoulder and open it up. She pours out tons of food that doesn't need to be cooked.

The group's response is to stand there in awe. Gilbert pretty much glomps Yuki in sheer joy. "You're really somethin', girl!"

Yuki slightly blushes in response.

Well, that closes chapter two of Dead in Their Tracks. Please leave me a review and tell me what you think and what I could add and how I can make the series better (remember, I'm just getting into this fan fiction thing).


	3. Dead in Their Tracks: The Subway Station

Dead in Their Tracks

Chapter 3 – The Subway Station

Same disclaimer, as always.

Flashback scenes with begin to appear from here on in. They will be written in _italics_.

The group is a bit tired, but they still have a long way to go. (They're really almost there.) Before they leave the safe house however, they snack a bit on some of the food Yuki grabbed up in the convenience store. Among the food that didn't need to be cooked were some Pop-Weasel Tarts, cookies, and some other simple edible provisions.

Yuki seems to really enjoy the chewy butterscotch candy and sugar cookies that she grabbed up. When Gilbert asked why she enjoyed those things so much, she replied saying "It's because it reminds me of when my mother used to make these very cookies and candy at her job. But…I don't remember much of what I used to do…or who I am."

"Hey, don't you worry. We'll help you remember what you were here for. I remember when you first ran up to us crying…" Everything whites out, and a faint flashback appears.

"_Careful, guys. Infected are still everywhere. We need to get to s safe spot quickly." Gilbert said._

"_Big duh. If anything runs at us, we'll pop it in the head." Hank said._

_Fredrick quickly hushed the group. "Do you hear that? Sounds a lot like crying…you think it's an infected?"_

_Gilbert disagrees. "Infected don't cry. That's a bit unnatural, as I hear a lot of weird-ass sounds as they hunt us down."_

_Fredrick listens again. The crying sound isn't moaning. He hears panting, and heavy breathing. Sure enough, it is crying, but it is in a feverish and frantic way._

_From a car tunnel emerges a young girl who looks to be in her tens. She is crying and screaming as she runs out of the tunnel leading into Laine City, chased by a massive crowd of infected that numbers into the hundreds._

_The group tries to fire at them all, but it is nearly hopeless. Hank is quick to react to the situation and throws a Molotov he picked up earlier. The impact point is perfect as it explodes and incinerates the entire group of infected._

"_Nice throwin', Tex!" Gilbert says in amazement._

_The young girl dives at Gilbert, and he catches her in his arms. She looks up, her eyes red from crying. Her pupils are an even brighter scarlet and seem to glisten in the sunlight._

"_Hey, what's wrong?" She doesn't reply, and keeps crying, holding on to Gilbert as if he was the single most important thing in the world she had left._

_Gilbert kneels down and comforts her. "Shhh…it's going to be alright. You're gonna be safe with us." The young girl sniffles, but calms down a small bit. She still holds tightly onto Gilbert._

_But she smiles faintly, and quietly says "…thank…you…"_

The flashback fades away, and returns to the present day. Gilbert sighs. "I feel for ya, Yuki. It's really not easy to get used to this world, now that this…virus is around the globe. Where is your mother exactly?"

Yuki has a confused look on her face. "I don't know. I remember her taking me to an evacuation zone…and that's the last I saw of her. But she was the best mama in the world. She was always nice to me and others, though people didn't see the world the way she saw it. When the infection began, she defended me…and she managed to get me all the way to a military evacuation zone. Since then, I don't know of her whereabouts."

"Well, I'm sure we'll find her too…if she is still trying to escape." said Gilbert, though he said it nervously, unsure if she **was** alive or not.

Within a few minutes, everyone was finished with their food, and was ready to go. Everyone took some more ammo and more health kits after healing their selves a bit, and sniped some infected from the safe room door before walking out into the subway.

The subway itself was dead and well deserted, now only filled to the brim with infected. Most of the trains were overturned and destroyed, thanks to the efforts of the infected. All of the trains on the schedule board are all listed as "DELAYED". Some of the "delayed" flaps have "DEAD" and "OVERRUN" written over them.

"Well, this station's pretty much gone. Let's hurry and cut through here and get to Grand Laine Metro!" yelled Fredrick.

Without any hesitation, they run through the subway, killing any infected that dare attacked them. However, they noticed that Yuki was getting flanked more so than any other group member…

Eventually, they hear a different kind of gurgling, not the same as the fat infected.

Hank is perplexed, having not heard such a sound in his life. "Man, can somebody tell me who is hacking a loogie around here?"

What ensued next was pretty much chaos. Something hit the ground. As it impacted and hit the group, green substance spilled out onto the ground and began bubbling. Everyone started to take on super-heated pain as they got out of the patch of goo.

Yuki, as she wasn't wearing any foot protection whatsoever, suffered the effects of the corrosive liquid the most. Her feet were now in complete tatters and were scarred horribly. She screamed in pain as she ran from the acid, and slumped against a nearby wall. Tears ran from her eyes as she reared up against the wall.

Gilbert and the others suffered just as much, but to a much lesser extent. They took some of the acid as well. Hank sees the infected that spit at them, still drooling acid. He pops it with a well aimed round of bullets filled with hate. More harmful liquid ran from the infected's body, but knowing the effects of the stuff now, they completely avoid it.

Gilbert runs to Yuki's side and tries his best to calm her down. He uses part of her health kit to fix her feet up to the best of his abilities.

Gilbert asks out of fear for Yuki's safety. "Are you okay?"

Yuki looks at him, and utters simply "Yes…"

They get Yuki back on her feet and continue their trek deeper into the now decimated transit. It isn't long until they hear strange noises, one sounding vaguely like "don't shoot me".

Fredrick takes point. "Careful. Another one of those freaks are about."

However, they fail to see an infected with a massive arm charge at Gilbert, which promptly grabs him and bowls the entire group over. It keeps going until it finally stops and starts slamming Gilbert into the ground.

"This thing's pounding me into the pavement!!!" yelled Gilbert as he struggled to get out of this new infected's grip, but it was of no use, this thing's grip was like iron.

The group got up, and Yuki, in defense, tries to shove the big armed infected, but to no avail. It was like trying to shove a mountain aside. She then retaliates by whacking the infected with her crowbar. The first hit doesn't kill it, but the second hit cracks its skull wide open and kills it, releasing Gilbert. Gilbert lays on the ground, incapacitated, and definitely not feeling good after nearly getting smashed like a pancake.

Yuki helps him up to his feet, but his ribs nearly feel like they've been completely destroyed and his body is hurting all over. "Are you alright, Gilbert…?"

Although Gilbert had been nearly crushed by the infected, he managed to utter "Yeah…*cough* *cough* I'm okay…my body feels like it has been through hell, though."

Once he's gotten back up, he takes his pain pills and feels a bit better, but he's conserving his medkit for later, just in case. But then, maniacal laughter is heard coming from somewhere.

Hank now looks really puzzled. "Who in the hell is laughing during an apocalypse?"

As soon as he said it, something hopped up onto his back and began steering him away from the group. "AGH! This thing's running me ragged!!!" Hank yelled as the small little infected lead him away from Gilbert and the others.

Gilbert replies in disgust. "Ugh. Is it just me, or does that _**seriously**_ look undignified?"

They run and shoot the thing, but hit Hank several times by accident trying to shoot the hunchback infected. Fredrick catches up and kills it with one swing of his axe.

"What the hell, man? That thing just jumped me…and I swear it was doing unholy things to my head…" said Hank, though he sounds disgusted about his attacker. "I'm not going to touch that thing ever again, even with a thirty-nine and a half foot pole."

Fredrick replies. "No shame, kid. We're almost to the exit, I believe. Let's keep moving."

They travel through the transit, but soon they see a massive amount of blood splattered on the ground. At the same time, they hear crying and moaning.

Fredrick recognizes the noise. "Everyone turn off your lights. I've encountered these things before. Gilbert, lend me your shotgun."

"Uh, sure. But, why? Shouldn't we be saving whoever is crying?" says Gilbert.

"Not what's around the corner here, we aren't." says Fredrick, slowly creeping around the corner, with Gilbert's SPAS-12 in hand.

Gilbert peeks around the corner and sees something sitting in the darkness. She looks absolutely thin, and is wearing a brown tank-top and panties. Her skin is morbidly gray, and her hands have massive claws. No wonder he heeded the warning given by Fredrick. That thing may have killed him, and the others.

Fredrick got closer to the sobbing infected. She stopped crying and looked at Fredrick, then began to get up as her crying changed to growling, and then rage.

Gilbert yelled. "Look out! That thing's gonna-"

Fredrick manages to kill the infected point blank with one headshot. The infected screeches and falls dead at his feet. Gilbert looks at him in awe.

"Man that was awesomesauce!!!" Gilbert gleefully said. He just watched an old war veteran point blank an infected presumed to be one of the most dangerous, and to him, that was one of the most awesome things he's seen thus far. Fredrick hands Gilbert his SPAS-12 back to him and urges the team to move forward.

They finally come to another impasse after delving deeper into the subway. The temperatures are falling, and the walls seem to be getting moist. They see another board on the wall. This one has pictures of the infected the group has encountered so far, with their names listed below each one. Above the pictures, a long white strip of paper reads in bright red text "Know Your Infected".

"Well, at least they've signposted the "special infected" on the wall to identify them. Learn these names, and learn them well, guys, 'cause once we get out of this city, we're not coming back. But, then again, how are we supposed to get out of here now?" Gilbert says, after studying the corkboard.

Hank sees a door that exits into a train maintenance room, but it reads on the door "EMERGENCY EXIT. WARNING: ALARM WILL SOUND IF DOOR IF OPENED AT ANY TIME."

"Guys, we'll have to go through this door, but once we open it, we'll have to cut through the maintenance room to shut off the alarm." says Hank.

Gilbert replies. "I guess we have no other choice in the matter. Is everyone ready?"

Yuki nods in agreement. Hank does a thumbs up, and Fredrick says "Affirmative."

"Okay…I'm opening it."

The door is opened, and as soon as it does, an alarm sounds through out the entire maintenance room, which is seriously underground, as indicated by the ceiling, which is covered with stalactites. Countless trains line the room in a similar fashion of a maze, which will make navigation difficult. At the top of tons of staircases, there in wait lies the maintenance control room.

/!\ Gauntlet Crescendo Event engaged. Make your way through the train maintenance room and shut off the alarm in the control room.

[Incoming Attack!]

"Oh crap, man! RUN!" Gilbert yells, and the whole group takes off running like crazy.

They navigate the train yard the best they can. At some points, they get lost, but they quickly get back on track. They encounter some familiar faces on the way through…

Something attempts to constrict Yuki and succeeds. "SMOKER!" yells Gilbert, and with a few well placed shots, they kill it. Without their sniper, any future incidents with smokers would end in dismay. Something leaps out towards them, but Hank takes point and calls out. "Hunter!" They all turn their guns on it. It almost pounces Hank, but he hits it in the middle of its jump and it stops completely, giving them the time they need to pop a good few bullets in, and it falls dead on the ground. Suddenly, the obese infected pops out and hits Fredrick with the green substance they learned was called bile.

"It's a Boomer!" Yuki yells out. She shoots just one well placed bullet and it makes the Boomer completely explode. More infected arrive, but the team keeps firing madly at them all and save Fredrick from an undesirable fate. They kill at least fifty infected from that horde, but more arrive to make life a bit tougher. Then a Spitter, Charger and Jockey appear to have a piece of the action, but their efforts are wasted thanks to Yuki's sniping skills, but the Spitter gets her again just as she's about to pop a second bullet into it to finish it off and burns her feet and burns straight through the bandages. She yells in pain, but doesn't give in to it either. She quickly moves to avoid any further pain.

The group finally makes it out of the train maze. They quickly rush up the stairs and find the control room door wide open. They quickly run inside, and Yuki slams the button on the control panel.

"It's off now!" Yuki says. With that behind them, they make their way up back to the surface. The temperatures are rising now, as they go up, and soon, they see that all too familiar symbol on a huge piece of wood.

"There's the safe house up those stairs!" yells Fredrick. They manage to kill a few infected standing by the safe room and shut the door tight.

"HaHaaaaaaa! Oh, man! That was awesome! And we don't have much longer to go!" Gilbert yells in excitement.

CHAPTER CLEARED

We're safe…for now.

General Defense – Killed the most infected during the chapter.

Gilbert – 75

Hank – 52

Fredrick – 68

Yuki – 46

Witch Hunter – Did the most damage to the Witch(s) during the chapter.

Fredrick – 1000 (Cr0wned the Witch)

Yuki – 0

Gilbert – 0

Hank – 0

Nothing Special – Killed the most Special Infected during the chapter.

Yuki – 4

Fredrick – 1

Hank – 1

Gilbert – Nada

Brain Salad Chef – Killed the most Infected via headshot.

Gilbert – 12

Fredrick – 7

Yuki – 10

Hank – 9

Now Loading…Chapter 4: Grand Metro Finale

Chapter Three closes, but we're not finished here yet. Again, reviews, suggestions, and ideas are welcome. Campaign 1.5 will be coming soon, as will Campaign 2. Stay tuned!


	4. Dead in Their Tracks: Grand Metro Finale

Dead in Their Tracks

Chapter 4 – Grand Metro Finale

Same disclaimer, blah blah blah.

The survivors are almost home free. The metro station is so close, they can almost taste it. All they have to do now is get on the only train left in the metro anywhere.

The survivors eat whatever food they have left in Yuki's knapsack, and begin refilling their ammo.

Gilbert starts to talk about his original journeys on this very metro station. "You know, I miss the old times. I really do. Once, I was on a train and I decided to play a prank on the train conductor. I glued his seat just so he couldn't get up. It was funny, seeing the way he would struggle and spat trying to get out. I also heard he needed to go to the bathroom, and I started to feel bad for the guy, so I…"

Hank interrupted. "We don't have time for this, Gilbert."

"Okay," He replied.

Yuki, having heard some of his story, begins to reflect the first time she got on the train…

_The year is 2154. A young girl and her mother are walking into the Grand Laine Metro Station. Her mother has a brown hime-cut of medium length. She appears to be in her twenties, and is wearing casual clothing._

"_Come on, Yuki! We're going to be late for that concert you want to go to!" a female voice said._

"_Coming, mama!" Yuki said. She was at least five years old, and already, she had wanted to go to a concert. The concert she had wanted to go to was going to be at the top of a building, and the band was called "The Demons of a Thousand Genres". As their name suggested, they did 80s rock, drum and bass, j-pop; you name it. They remain as one of the best bands to date, right next to "The Heavenly Eclipse" and "Exaggerated Minds"._

_In fact, this was a very special occasion, because all three bands were going to meet up and play together, in an epic performance that fans of all three bands will come to see. "The Twilight Elves", however, because of their low sales and how much people hated their music, had also decided to battle against the three "offenders" in the ultimate battle of the bands that everyone will remember forever._

_When they got on the train, they relaxed and waited. But not all was to be well. Someone who had darker skin and…strange eyes and was wearing a trench coat and fedora walked towards them…and just stood there, staring at Yuki…_

"_Uh, can I help you, sir?" said Yuki's mother. No response, except for a flat grunt of sorts._

"_What was that, sir?" The person doesn't answer her question, but suddenly grabbed at Yuki, as if she was the biggest diamond in the world. Yuki's mother quickly grabber her up, but Yuki, scared out of her wits, jumps out of her mother's arms and runs away. The man quickly turns and runs at her, but her mother stops him before he can keep in pursuit._

"_What are you trying to do to her, you freak?!" she said, pulling on his clothes. Incidentally, the hat and coat come off, revealing that this man is not as normal as he seems. His skin is bleach pale, and his eyes are glowing an eerie orange yellow. His teeth are sharper than that of any other person. Yuki's mother gasps at the sight of how altered this man looks..._

"_What in the…" she says, but barely has time to react as the man tries to bite her. She quickly brings out a pistol and turns the "Never-Fail Safety" on the gun off and switches it to the "Whoa, Mama!" mode. The gun is fired at the man several times before he finally drops dead. More people are starting to double over as if they were in pain…then the realization that they were in danger quickly set in to her. She was quick to grab her daughter up and make a run for it to the front of the train. The subway train driver was also sick, and had turned too. The subway train itself had now sped up to an amazing speed, and they would be mere minutes from crashing. Killing the train driver, and with everybody on the train infected, they jumped out of the train, Yuki's mom holding on to her pride and joy as she dove out of the train. It kept screaming down the track until it exploded with amazing force. Flaming zombie parts fell down from the sky as she ran from the scene. It had begun. And she would be the first of many survivors to stop this dangerous phenomenon…_

The flashback fades away, and Yuki stumbles backwards, though Gilbert keeps her steady. "What happened?" Gilbert says as she regains composure.

Yuki says "I…don't know. I could've sworn I saw my mother carrying me away from a speeding train as it exploded…it was a flashback…I think."

Gilbert replies in a more slightly shocked tone. "Seriously? Your mother nearly got herself killed for your life and you both survived getting attacked by the infected?! Whoa!"

Yuki replies. "It's a long story, trust me…"

After having gotten the rest of the food eaten, the group heals up and moves out.

More infected stand in their way, but with the group's weapons still intact, the infected don't stand much of a chance. They keep moving up more stairs, until finally, there was light seeping through at the end of the subway.

"We're almost out of here!!!" yelled Hank as they approached the subway exit with much haste. Soon, they emerge from the exit, and they are greeted with warm fresh air. The sun has completely disappeared, and the full moon is now rising from the horizon, casting an eerie glow over Laine City, now devastated and full of flames. Grand Laine Metro stands tall and mighty, looming over the survivors a few feet from the subway exit. It looks reminiscent of Grand Central Station; likewise the Grand Brandonopolis Metro Station was the same way, except a tad bit more fancy.

They walk inside. Like the rest of the subway before this, it is absolutely deserted and really dark. There is only one train that is intact. That's the train they've been looking for, and at long last, they finally have found it. Now all they had to do was to get it running and get the hell out of there!

"Oh man! There it is! We've made it!" Gilbert yells in utter excitement.

They get inside it, and power it up. The engine revs up, and the lights flip on. Suddenly, an explosion is heard, and the engines die. "What?! NO! That can't have happened!!" The power meter beside the wheel goes from "full" to "empty" in a heartbeat.

Gilbert, in a rage, screams "WHYYYYYYYYYYYY?!?" and breaks down sobbing on the train controls.

Hank looks in anger. "So…this is how it ends, huh? Sticking around in a train that won't start? Because…well…"

"Who's out there?! Speak now, or I'll come out there and shoot on sight!" a voice said. It was coming from inside the control booth. The window was clouded and dirty, so they couldn't see who was behind it.

Gilbert retaliates. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Don't shoot! We're just trying to get out of here! What in Cypress Hill are you thinking, shooting _us_?!"

"Wait…you guys are survivors?" the voice replies.

"Please, don't shoot them, honey… They're just trying to get the train out there stated." says a softer female voice.

"Yes, but the last group we encountered weren't immune and turned right as they took down the first Tank that came after them." says the other voice. "Anyways, you guys are immune…right? And are you combat effective?"

Gilbert replies once again. "Well, yeah, and yeah. Though it hasn't been any bed of roses, I can tell you that. We've been fighting zombies throughout the whole damn city, and I'm covered in blood and guts! We're as immune as we come!"

Silence for a minute, and the window is being cleaned by someone inside. Eventually, they can clearly see through the entire window. A white stickman wearing a combat army helmet, brown shorts, and a bandolier is seen just inside the booth. His eye color is brown. Next to him stands a beautiful girl. Her eyes are Technicolor with all sorts of eye shines and stars inside them. Her rainbow colored hair looks fluffy soft, and looks reminiscent of a cloud. Her…frontal assets are pretty large. She is wearing weird clothes under her pinkish-purple hoodie. She wears a white cross pendant, and just underneath it, a business tie. She looks weird, and she may be extremely powerful (she's powerful enough to destroy an entire planet), but she's as sweet and caring as they come. Playing video games in the background is a strange sight; a purple humanoid cat with ominous looking yellow eyes. He looks much immersed in his gaming experience, but he stops to come and look at the survivors just outside their safe house. Further still is a weird-looking scientist type wearing a big lab coat. Underneath the lab coat is a blue shirt with a huge black X in the middle of it. He is also wearing goggles, and his huge neckline is concealing his mouth the same way the goggles are concealing his eyes. He also wears a weird hat with what looks to be sideways pointing cat ears pointing out the sides. He stops mixing chemicals to also see these new survivors through the window.

Hank breaks a minute of silence afterwards. "Whoa…crazy bunch of survivors I'm looking at here. Who are you guys?"

The stick man answers Hank. "I'm the creator of this world you now find yourself in. This is my take on reality…this was the utopia of everyone's dreams. Those who discovered it could live in the city alongside my own creations. But now…the whole city has become defunct. EVERYWHERE you look…everyone you see…are either real-world immigrants, or creations of my doing…now underneath the thumb and influence of this…infection. The U.S. Military has somehow gotten down here to take precautions…but what am I, rambling on and about my world and everything? I am Brandon Allen Cash, creator of Video Game World, and founder of Brandonopolis…in pre-spirit. This over here is my lovely wife, Akiyoko Belldandy Chachamaru. Over here is my best friend, Robert McAllister, or Bob, as he's commonly known as. And over here is my best scientist/medic in the entire universe, Xavier Calhoun Nottingham, affectionately called 'The Brain' by me. But anyhow, we know what you've come for. You've come to get the train, haven't you?"

Yuki replies to Brandon. "How did you know we were coming for the train?"

Brandon answers her question. "I started to pick up life readings and looked through the security camera to see who could've been coming here. So to speak, we've been watching your progress."

Fredrick speaks up. "But why were you so hostile towards us when you heard us?"

Brandon gives off a smile. "Well, Manson. It's been a while since your sendoff. The reason why, is that several weeks back, I encountered some young survivors wanting to take the train out of here. One of them died fighting. One got smoked by a Tank. Another keeled over getting knocked about by all six damn special infected. The last one…I executed…point blank with my own shotgun. Poor fella must've gotten bitten during the fight…or prior to it. He began to turn into a freaking tank…but he was resisting. He asked me to kill him, but before his execution, he gave me a portrait of his family…to tell his wife and kids he loved them if they ever got here. Several weeks later and there hasn't been any word on them, or any appearance. Before that, an entire team of survivors turned into full blown special infected. One became a Hunter, one a Smoker, one a Charger, and the last one…we were far too busy with the other three that the last one transformed into…something we've never seen before…a completely different infected."

Gilbert talks again. "What did it look like exactly?"

Brandon replies to Gilbert. "I'm not sure. We only caught a few glimpses of him as we hauled ass out of the metro station. But he was ugly…a big freaking brute that was once a man. Boy, did he reek something rotten as sin. He also had the abilities of all the other specials, from the Smoker's constrictive tongue to the Boomer's bile-throwing abilities, and he was just about as strong as any Tank, if not, a helluva lot stronger. Once, that mother managed to pick up an entire semi and threw it at us. It almost killed everybody, but thankfully, we all saw it too and just barely had enough time to duck before it clobbered us with the whole truck, trailer attachment and all."

"Damn. Strong infected." Gilbert replies.

"I can't help…but agree with that notion. It was roughly the size of a Tank, except a bit bigger. A couple of times he incapacitated me and Aki, but with Bob and Xavier's help and distractions, we managed to survive its onslaught…but the damage wasn't pretty. Now that thing is probably lurking around in the station somewhere, but you probably won't need to worry about him until the generator is kick-started." Brandon says.

"Wait, you mean these trains run off of freaking electricity?!" Hank outcries.

"Well, there wasn't any way to get power to the trains automatically after the infection hit, so I had to use a generator to charge up all of them, even the ones in the maintenance room you crossed earlier. Now that that thing is busto, and all the other trains have been junked, I have a back-up generator off to the side of this booth here connected to the only train left in this metro. Once that thing starts up, it'll make a racket. Not only will it power up the train, but it will light up the entire station. This whole place is essentially a disaster area just waiting to happen as soon as people flip it on. You'd better be ready before cranking that baby up, otherwise things will end in only death." says Brandon.

Gilbert nods. "All right, everyone! Let's prepare for the worst that is to come!" Everyone begins to set up and refill their ammo. They also set up a perimeter with fuel cans and propane tanks. A minigun has been mounted up and is pointing in virtually any direction possible. After an hour and a half, they are pretty much prepped for the biggest fight of their lives.

"Okay, we're ready." said Yuki.

"All right. I'll monitor the progress of the charge from here. Gil, start it up." Brandon says in confirmation.

Gilbert nods. "You got it." He walks over to the back-up generator and begins to start it up. As soon as the key is turned one last time, the generator sputters to life. The train begins to start up, and the entire station turns on. That's when they heard the scream…and now they knew they were in for it.

/!\ The train is charging up. Defend yourselves from the horde until it finishes powering up!

[Incoming Attack!]

Gilbert and the rest of the group are pumped and primed for action. "They're coming… YOU GUYS READY?!" he yells in excitement.

Hundreds of infected flood through the front entrance, and the fight for survival was on! The group fired as fast as they possibly could, delivering blow by blow from their melee weapons whenever some infected got too close for comfort. Gilbert fired several shots from his SPAS-12 shotgun, killing at least twenty-three infected in the crowd. Hank blasted his pistols into the crowd and dropped a good thirty-nine infected, then he switched to his auto-shotgun, killing as many as thirty with an entire clip. Yuki sniped as many as she could with her magazines she was filled to the brim with. Each time she emptied an entire two magazines, she had killed at least forty infected. Fredrick used up a lot of ammo in his M-16, but he managed to pick off a lot of infected, having killed at least fifty-seven infected near the end of the first wave.

Soon, Hank used his pipe bomb to get rid of the rest of the common infected. As the bomb was ticking away, a Boomer and Smoker arrived to make life difficult. The Smoker, being retarded, stood right next to Yuki as he attempted to constrict Hank, who disposed of it with a single blow from her crowbar. The Boomer was a bit smarter, running around the survivors and making himself as hard of a target to his as possible. They managed to kill him by leading their shots ahead of his running, proving that, once again, the survivor is smarter than the average infected.

"Okay, guys. The train is filled up to 25% energy! It'll take a few more minutes to get the full loadout we need!" says Brandon through the booth.

Within the short timespan of killing the special infected that attempted to catch the heroes off guard, all too familiar roaring began sounding throughout the station.

[A Tank is approaching!]

The ground shakes, and they hear the roaring coming from the southeastern point of the metro. Sure enough, the Tank is coming through the side entrance in an attempt to catch them off guard. He opens up by throwing another slab of concrete at the survivors, but this time, they're coordinated enough to take care of this thing. They begin firing at the Tank, continuously making it shout in pain as it ran towards them. The Tank manages to hit Fredrick with one good blow from his fist and sends him flying across the metro. He lands on the ground hard, but recovers just as quickly. The Tank follows up with another concrete slab, but this time, aims at Yuki, completely unaware, since she is concerned about Fredrick.

"Yuki, watch your ass, girl!" Hank yells in order to get her attention. She looks and sees the Tank winding up and throwing the slab her way. Thankfully, she gets out of the way in time, pulling Fredrick along with her as she dives to her left. He gets him up, and fires at the Tank as she gets back to her perch. Fredrick continues unloading a full magazine as the Tank chases Yuki. Gilbert finishes it off with a headshot, and the Tank falls to the floor with a thud. They've defeated another Tank, but they weren't done just yet. It wouldn't be their last one, either…

"All right. It's halfway there! A few more minutes holding off those infected should ensure victory!" says Brandon.

A second scream signals another horde approaching. Suddenly, all of the power goes out, and the survivors are stuck in darkness, as the horde enters the pitch-black station.

"Power's out! I'm gonna restart the generator! Cover me!" Hank yells.

Gilbert loudly replies. "Gotcha! PIPE BOMB IN THE HOLE!!" Gilbert throws his second pipe bomb he saved earlier. The infected chase it until it finally explodes, sending zombie guts everywhere. Gilbert grabs another one, just in case he needs to get the horde off of them again.

Hank is currently getting the generator working again. "COME ON ALREADY, YOU WORTHLESS PLIE OF…" Following that statement, he kicks it out of anger, finishing the process, and yelps in pain. The entire station flickers back on again, and the train continues charging up.

"All right! The power's on again, and now the train is continuing the charge! Good job, Hank!" yells Brandon.

"Yeah, thanks! Whatever…ow…" says Hank.

Soon after killing more infected, Brandon announces the near completion of the charge.

"Great job, guys! The charge is as 75%! Just hold out a little bit longer…you'll be out of here in no time!"

Another roar is heard, and other Tank arrives. This one drops through the ceiling, and punches Gilbert halfway across the station lobby as he lands. This one actually surprises the group, and makes them stumble backwards. They quickly regain composure and begin shooting the Tank. Gilbert gets back up, and does the same. This Tank, however, doesn't last nearly as long as the first one did, and soon, it falls quickly.

"We are almost done! The power is now 80% and rising!" Brandon yells through booth.

Gilbert whoops it up. "OH YEAH!!! We are kicking some ass now, people! We're gonna be free men soon, you hear me?!"

That was a fatal thing to think. Their trip wasn't over yet. At that moment, they hear insane sounding growling, the type of growling that'll give you the chills up your spine. The air started to really stink like rotten meat and…a thousand cadavers… Loud thudding footsteps…no…the thudding of fists hitting the pavement with a lot of force were heard from a distance.

Gilbert was worried sick. "Brandon…what was that…?"

Even Brandon looked shocked, as if he'd seen a ghost. Something was up.

Brandon answered. "It's here…"

Suddenly, something jumped on top of the huge Atlas-esque statue, and roared with vigor and fearsome power. It looks gut-wrenchingly disgusting. Lots of pulsating flesh and muscles are making up most of the monster's composite appearance. Spines are poking through many parts: out his back, out his shoulders, out his elbows…even his gigantic claws were spines. Its face was messed up beyond belief. Part of its face was missing, its lower jaw was gone, and it was a mangled twisted mess. Its eyes glow an ominous glow-in-the-dark yellow. It stands at least 15 feet tall and 9 heads wide. Its upper torso is extremely meaty and filled with pus, and really bulky, while his lower torso is much smaller, and its legs are partially meaty, but mostly bone shows through. It wears only blue denim jeans, and they are in tatters, but are otherwise still intact.

Yuki's eyes begin to tear up in panic, and her pupils grow smaller, as she stares at this new thing in fear and complete shock. "W-what…is…THAT?!"

Brandon screams. "That's what that one guy transformed into when we encountered him!!! Whatever you do, DON'T QUIT SHOOTING!!!"

They were surprised at what they saw. What they were looking at was once a man…now under the heaviest strain of infection seen thus far. This wasn't going to be easy to brave.

Now they were faced with…The UberTank.

[CAMPAIGN BOSS: The UberTank]

Defend the booth and kill the UberTank!

The UberTank opens by throwing a car from the outside at them, using telekinesis. They are quick to duck and roll, but the UberTank has just begun his fight.

He rushes at the group, charging at them in similar manner of a Charger. He manages to catch Yuki in his path and proceeds to smash her into the ground. However, the three quickly fore a lot of shots at it and he drops her shortly after a few bursts from all their guns.

The UberTank then fires a tongue in retaliation at Fredrick, who is successfully constricted, but the tongue is cut by Gilbert's machete with a quick throw. Gilbert goes to grab it, but as he runs after it, the UberTank pukes bile towards him and attracts a horde. The UberTank immediately jumps off into the rafters and crashes through the ceiling to the outside. The horde screams and descends upon Gilbert. Everyone else quickly defends Gilbert as he uses his machete to clean up any infected that got past their small phalanx formation. A sixty strong horde falls victim to the group once again, but that's when the UberTank comes crashing down the rafters again, this time hauling an entire train (all the other cars attached too!) over his head.

"Look OUT!!!" yells Gilbert, as the UberTank throws the train. It hits all but one survivor; Gilbert being the only one standing. The UberTank charges at him again…but this time, Gilbert is ready. He blasts the UberTank with a single round from his SPAS-12 and grabs Hank's lead pipe. He smashes it into its head and knocks it out cold long enough to get his teammates back up on their feet. After he brings Yuki back up, the UberTank gets back up, and immediately spits Spitter goo at them. They quickly jump out of the way in retaliation and continue the assault. The hulking husk of flesh leaps at the group Hunter style, and pins Hank, but all three shove it off of him and keep firing. Then it leaps onto Gilbert like a Jockey and steers him away from the group. With a three way melee attack effort by Yuki, Fredrick, and Hank, they knock him down, and he finally falls to the ground, presumably dead.

The lights go out again, and come back on just as quickly. The corpse of the beast is gone…but then a huge explosion is heard and the lights go out for real. All that's left is the fluorescent glow from the booth window and the moonlight shining through the doors and hole. The UberTank jumps out from the darkness and continues its assault on the survivors.

Brandon isn't happy that the back-up generator has been destroyed thanks to the UberTank, which is way smarter than it looks. "Damn it! He's smashed the generator flat! I've only got one final option, but it'll take a much longer time. I'm activating the manual charge override. It's the only way. The power is at 80% still, so it'll be another twenty before the train is filled to its fullest. Keep him busy while the manual charge finishes the job!"

/!\ The back-up generator has been destroyed. Keep the UberTank busy until the charge finishes!

The UberTank, after taking a bit more punishment, now rushes back into the darkness. The group looks around for any movement. They see the hulking mass rush towards them at a startlingly fast pace, but everyone save for Hank (who was slow to react) dives out of the way. Hank ends up being knocked off of his feet and knocked backwards. The UberTank raises his fists over his head to crush Hank…

"Well…I've lived my life as a criminal…but I'll die a hero…" Hank saying what could be his last words. Suddenly, a propane tank is thrown towards the monster, and a sniper bullet destroys it, making it explode, and knocking the UberTank forward and past Hank. Thanks to careful planning on the rest of the group's part, Hank's life has been saved, thanks to a propane tank and a young, but skilled, sniper.

"85 percent there, guys. Just a bit longer!" Brandon says from the booth.

The UberTank begins to throw various objects around the metro station in a rage. He begins combining his powers in desperation to kill the group, like Boomer Acid or constricting his victim and the charging at them, dealing damage. Despite its best efforts, he still gets beaten down by the survivors, and soon he's bruised and bleeding all over the place.

Brandon announces again as the lights flicker back on. "90 percent and counting! There's only a minute of charge time left, so you are now free to kill him!"

They pour on as much damage as they can as the UberTank throws as much strength as he can.

"95 percent! Only thirty seconds to go! Hang in there!" Brandon yells.

The UberTank picks up the destroyed back-up generator and throws it at the group, whose response is to jump out of the way as is careens towards them.

"15 seconds!"

The UberTank, now aware of the near-completion of the train's charging duties, jumps onto the train and begins punching it continuously in a last effort to prevent the group from ever leaving Laine City.

"Guys, it's trying to destroy the train! Kill it quickly before it trashes your only way out of here!!" Brandon yells at the group.

The group doesn't hesitate a second. They shoot the UberTank as much as they can.

"Five! Four! Three!! Two!! ONE!!!" Brandon counts down.

The UberTank finally roars in agony, and stumbles backward in disorientation…and expires, falling off the edge of the train, and landing head first.

"It's done! The train is completely charged! Let's get the hell out of here!" Brandon yells, grabbing his own weapons and running toward his safe room door. The whole safe room door explodes open, with Brandon and his friends flooding out the safe house and making break for the train.

Hank questions this. "What are they doing? Are they trying to leave without us?!"

Gilbert thinks otherwise. "They've helped us charge the train the rest of the way, so who cares! Get on!"

/!\ The train has charged up all the way! Board the train immediately!

The horde immediately comes in and begins to attack as they board the train. A Smoker drags Yuki out of the train, but Gilbert grabs her sniper rifle and headshots the Smoker from a distance. He carries her into the train afterwards.

"Everyone's here, Brandon! Let's move it on out of here!!!" yells Xavier.

The train starts up, and starts to move down the track, slowly at first, but it begins to quickly pick up speed as it runs over more Common Infected coming in through the tunnel, and soon, it is running at full speed. They've made it out of Laine City…but this may be the beginning of their troubles.

"Train has been switched to autopilot." says a synthesized voice over the intercom.

Brandon walks toward the last car, and greets the new survivors, with Akiyoko following him.

[Extra Chapter: Train Defense Finale]

"It's good to finally meet survivors who are immune. But it's been hell. We've been waiting for twenty years to get out of there. Each group of survivors we've seen…mutilated, smashed, constricted, pounced, pummeled…there are many other words I can use to describe the tortures I've seen befall the unfortunate survivors that have tried to get out alive, but failed. Now they have escaped…to a better place." Brandon remorsefully said.

Akiyoko steps forward and speaks. "It has not been a soothing swan song. I miss the good old days, when I used to be able to go outside and smell my flowers at our mansion, and do things with our children, like take them out to concerts and everything…but then the infection came and claimed many lives. Ever since, I haven't enjoyed my time here on Video Game World…but I believe things will get better soon" she says.

Gilbert replies. "I know what you mean. I had great buddies at my college once. Best friend you could ever ask for. They were always there for me when I got myself into a fix. They always were people who loved to have fun…all the time. We'd do many great things. Not only did we behave in school, but we had fun outside of that. We played multiplayer games, we competed in many events…hell, and we went to anime conventions. Tokyothon is the best convention I ever went to. My girlfriend…before she got done in by…I think it was a Hunter…she got me into the wild world of anime and manga. Sometimes, I enjoy the manga version of a show more than the anime version, and sometimes it's the reverse. Like this one book about a ten-year old teacher. Man, now THAT'S a great one."

Brandon replies soon after him. "I know. There's a battle against a magic vampire that I wanted to fight, just for the hell of it there, but thanks to the inevitable infection, that's been put on hold."

Their conversation is cut short, though, as an enormous roar is heard echoing somewhere behind them. The train has left the tunnel sometime ago, and they have now entered an empty field, with the moonlight conveying a creepy look on an otherwise peaceful scene, though how you can call a moonlit field with Common Infected teeming about a peaceful scene is just asking for a double take (and a possible armor piercing slap).

"What in Mary Francis was that?" says Gilbert.

They go out onto the platform in the back of the caboose and scan the area. They soon see a dark mass running toward them, using his hands as support. He looks like a pulsating, formless mish-mash of flesh…it's…

"THE UBERTANK!!!" yells Brandon.

Yes, the UberTank had returned for one more go-round with the survivors, and this time, it wasn't going to mess around. Now it was twice the size it was before, now the height of a two-story house and the width of a high-rise building (plus its arms). Now it was barreling down the tracks towards the train in an unstoppable rage. Common Infected have joined in the chase, hoping to get a piece of the action but the UberTank sweeps all of them aside, making it pretty clear that this fight is a grudge match. Its eyes glowed red with fury, further driving the nail down that this vendetta isn't completely over with. It didn't care whether these infected were killed by the survivors or he himself; all he wanted to do now was to prevent the survivors from escaping.

Brandon's face goes from shock to displeasure. "Tch… Right, that's it then. If this thing wants to continue the war, then so be it. I have an idea though. This train is equipped with thrusters. If I can get the thrusters warmed up…all of them…then we can roast this guy until he can't stand anymore. You'll have to give me time by stalling that thing again. I know it's much to ask, but if you want to live, you are going to have to stay with me. Hold him off, and I'll get those thrusters running!!"

"Got it!" Yuki says, and they begin to get to work on the big guy once more.

The UberTank throws boulders and absolutely everything but the kitchen sink at them in one last effort to kill them, but they end is dismay, now that the shields are up, and the survivors are nigh impossible to hit, let alone kill. Still, he doesn't give up, as he keeps trying to throw as much as he can find, and attempts to punch the train.

"The thrusters are a quarter started up! Keep him off of us for a few more minutes!" Brandon yells over the intercom.

The shields go down after withstanding enough abuse. In response to this, he picks up a massive boulder and throws it at the caboose car.

Hank yells "MOVE!" as the entire boulder sails through the night sky. The group quickly hauls ass out of there as the boulder strikes the caboose car, crushing it with unbelievable force. The entire train now pulls into a small tunnel. They think its over, but the wall to their right comes crashing down, and the UberTank emerges, having put his feet into two other vehicular tanks. Now he not only has extreme strength, but faster speed, now being able to close the distance between him and the train.

With the UberTank's new ability in closing distance, he begins smashing cars on the incredibly long train. The group's reaction is to run away as the cars crumple at the mercy of this beast's gargantuan strength.

"That thing's gonna smash this entire train into the ground! The thrusters are still firing up, but at least they're halfway there. DO NOT let him get to the conductor's car! If you do, it'll be game over!" Brandon blares over the intercom.

The UberTank doesn't hesitate to keep throwing objects at the train, even throwing infected at the group. But the group is persistent in shooting down the makeshift projectiles as they fly towards them. The tunnel is beginning to get smaller and more cramped as they go, but they still continue shooting, hoping to kill him while he is in the tunnel. Eventually, the UberTank just can't follow any farther into the tunnel, as it becomes as small as it can possibly get without the train scraping against the walls. It backs off for a minute to recuperate while the train rushes out of the tunnel.

The UberTank then quickly jumps out into the night and lands near the train, continuing the pursuit.

"The thrusters are now three-fourths fired up for zombie roasting! Give me a few minutes longer and I can end this!" Brandon once again announces over the intercom.

The UberTank won't let this fly. He once again tears up train cars and advances as the group turns tail and retreats farther up the train. By the time they make it to their next stopping point, he has destroyed thirty-six train cars in his rage, and the group is almost halfway to the conductor's car.

"Guys, I'm reading thirty-six car destructions total. By any means necessary, prevent him from getting any farther, like I said earlier! He'll smoke us if he gets that far!" Brandon says. Akiyoko seems to have completely vanished from the group since the first train car's destruction.

With cars running out, they make do with pumping as much lead as they can into the beast. The UberTank raises his fists, one at a time, to bring them down on top of the survivors, but is thwarted by being shot in his fists before he can do anything. He continues his routine of throw and punch, and smashing some cars, and soon they end up stopping him, but he gets back up and won't stop. Soon, Brandon finally makes the announcement that will determine the fate of the survivors…

"The thrusters have been fired up! It won't be effective enough if were moving, though, so we are going to have to make a full stop in order for the flames to be effective…but I AM detecting weak points inside his body. If you can somehow get those weak spots exposed, his armor will begin to disintegrate, and then we can flash him some good old fashioned fire! I'm stopping the train right now!" Sure enough, the train comes to a stop, slowing down at first, but then making a stop completely. The UberTank finally catches back up with them, and begins the last round of the battle. He delays his punches and other attacks, and due to this, consequently, they have enough time to shoot them before he has a chance to hit them. They continue firing until they hear Akiyoko's voice calling out to them.

"Get him to open his mouth! I've got something that'll choke him up _really_ good!" Akiyoko yells to the survivors.

They throw everything at him, but nothing happens. However, Hank happens to have a spare Molotov on him and throws it at him. The UberTank roars furiously at Hank, opening his mouth extremely wide.

A huge round of grenade launcher ammo is shot into the monster's mouth, and it begins to choke on the round before he inevitably swallows it. It detonates in his stomach, destroying parts of his armor and inflating several patches of pus-filled sacks. The weak points have been revealed, and now they would try and stop him here.

"Now! Hit him with everything you've got!!!" Akiyoko yells from above them. She has given them an advantage over the UberTank, and now all they have to do is to delay him to get the thrusters ignited.

"You heard her! Give it all your ammo!" Gilbert yells, and the entire team lets loose on the weak spots, switching to other areas to stop any oncoming attacks.

Each spot grows and begins to turn red until finally they explode into a mess of mangled, deflated flesh. Eventually, after enough shots, the whole monster finally falls…but is it over?

"Good job, guys! I'm starting ignition!!! The brakes are on so the train doesn't move until that thing is nothing but smoldering ashes!" Brandon yells over the intercom.

"Ignition in T-minus 10 seconds." says a synthesized female voice over the intercom.

"Nine…"

"Eight…"

The UberTank is still.

"Seven…"

"Six…"

"Five…"

The UberTank twitches a bit.

"Four…"

"Three…"

The UberTank begins to stand back up…

"Two…"

"One…"

"Ignition!"

But it's too late for this monster. The thrusters ignite and the whole monster begins to light up. It screams like all hell as it melts, eventually the roaring in agony turning into gargling, as the monster's body parts fall off and explode. Eventually, nothing is left of the once mighty UberTank.

"He's dead! I'm releasing the brakes and sending us on our way!!!" Brandon yells from the front of the train. The brakes are released and the train quickly speeds up. With that, they are on their way to their freedom from this infernal infection.

Little to their knowing this is only the beginning of the madness they will endure.

THE SURIVORS HAVE ESCAPED!

[Certain things may not be entirely accurate.]

Total Infected Kills

Gilbert – 500

Hank – 650

Yuki – 462

Fredrick – 700

Special Infected Kills

Boomers – 2

Smokers – 3

Chargers – 3

Hunters – 4

Jockeys – 2

Spitters – 2

Disturbed the Witch the Most

Fredrick – CROWNED the Witch

Incapacitations

Yuki – 1

Gilbert- 1

Fredrick - 2

Hank – 2

No Deaths!

Many zombies were harmed in the making of this fan fiction.

Well, it took a while to finish this last chapter, but that officially closes Dead in Their Tracks. It's time for Campaign 1.5 (Death or Derailment) up next. Stay tuned.


	5. Death or Derailment: The Town Church

Campaign 1.5: Death or Derailment

"When your vehicle crashes and infected surround you completely, all you have left is strength in numbers."

Traverse your way around the once-peaceful small town of Saint Marlona and find the department store to find a vehicle or two to sustain your group.

[Same Disclaimer.]

Author's Note: I seriously apologize for the massive delay. The reason behind this is that two rouge Trojan viruses struck down my computer (and my mom's work computer, somehow) and there was no way to save anything on it now that the virus had taken over. I almost believe the virus originated from this very site...but I have my doubts. I had started on this campaign, but lo and behold, I find myself struggling with a pair of tough as nails Trojans (which, by the way, CAN lock out all command over your computer so you can't do a damn thing about it, and I was lucky enough to still have access to my internet even after the fact). Thanks to my friend's dad though, the hiatus has been averted, at the cost of everything on the computer, although they tried to save the files. So, yeah. Now you know why it's been a month or so and I haven't been able to post anything. I hope this has been worth the wait. Please now...enjoy!

* * *

Starring...

Gilbert Rochester

Hank Thompson

Fredrick Manson

Yuki Everlife (real last name unknown)

Brandon Allen Cash (Yeah, me. Don't start this whole Mary Sue fight now, please.)

Akiyoko Belldandy Chachamaru (My wife. Yeah, call me crazy if you will, but I DO want her to be real for Christmas)

Xavier Nottingham

Bob McAllister

And eight other special guest stars. You'll see who they are early into the chapter, but those of you fans of Left 4 Dead out there should know who I'm talking about right now.

* * *

Chapter 1: The Town Church

**The scene opens up to the now destroyed train, crumpled up against a huge metal door, closing off a good long portion of the mainland the group was about to head into. The door has a huge bio-hazard symbol on it. The time is still the same as when they left Laine City just an hour ago after dealing with the ferocious Uber-Tank at the train station.**

"Damn it, Brandon. Why'd you go and destroy the train for?" Hank asks in an angry tone towards Brandon.

"Hank, what are you getting angry at me for? Sure I was piloting the train, but the thrusters wouldn't stop running long enough for me to put the breaks on. Had I applied the breaks as it was speeding along the tracks with as much force as it was flying, the breaks would've fried trying to stop, and we would've crashed while inside the train." Brandon immediately fired back.

Hank pauses for a beat. "Well...I guess I can't exactly argue with that. What's with this door here anyways?"

Gilbert answers Hank. "It looks like that area's been hit hard by the infection. Whatever strain of infection is going around there must of been strong enough for it to be quarantined like this. I guess we'll be walking after all."

"Well, son, nobody had said this would be easy. To be honest, I'd rather not see what is going on in there myself. It must really be that bad." Fredrick replies.

"Well, we're not going to get anywhere sitting around by this train, are we? Just grab whatever survived the crash and let's move." Bob says.

The gun bag was in the crash, which now has been destroyed along with all the guns except for some pistols and several melee weapons . They grab what they can and head on out. Infected have begun to swarm the area, but the group manages to pull through an increasingly large group of infected, now numbering in about two hundred per whatever group they found on their way into the town. They come across a large sign that reads "Saint Marlona: Home of the historic Marlona Christian Church". The population number has been crossed out; it's clear the whole town is completely deserted (save for the zombies, of course) and no survivors would be in sight for miles now.

"Ah, Saint Marlona. Used to be the most peaceful place in Video Game World...but now...it's gone to hell. Pardon the Christian Church here, but yeah." Brandon says as they enter the town.

As expected, the entire place has been flooded with the infected. Though the zombies rush at the group, they get put down without too much effort, although the group gets dinged up a bit as they fight.

Eventually, they find a supermarket in the town after fighting off what seemed like thousands of infected.

Gilbert is the first to notice it. "Hey, guys! There's a supermarket over there! Let's go in there and grab what we can out of there. Food, guns, anything!"

Once Gilbert says it, they haul ass in there and begin grabbing what they can. However, at that moment, eight other survivors were walking down towards Saint Marlona, unaware of the other group of eight ransacking the supermarket.

The group was made up of two halves. One was made up of a Vietnam War Veteran, an office worker, a college student, and a bulky biker.

The other half of the group was made of a news reporter, a school gym coach, a drifting riverboat gambler conman, and a young mechanic.

"Great, another small town. We've been through Riverside already, so can't we skip this one?", said the biker.

"Look, buddy, can we NOT keep listening to how much you hate things?" the conman retorts.

"How about both of you you shut up, please? I don't want another argument here." the college girl says.

"Fine." Both of them say.

The office worker sees the supermarket. "Hey, people! There's a supermarket down there. Maybe we can find some supplies?"

"Hell yeah, baby! I've never been so glad to see a supermarket since...well...ever!" the gym coach said.

They run down towards the supermarket, but encounter more infected on the way there. "More zombies? Guess th' east coast wasn't the only place hit." the mechanic says on the way there.

Gilbert and the others, meanwhile, pick up as much food as they can, and as many weapons as they can find, putting all the food into Yuki's knapsack. "All right, I think that's enough for now. Let's move on out. Does anyone know where we can find some sort of evacuation point?" Xavier says as they leave the supermarket.

"I'm not entirely sure, dude. Although I think there was some sort of sale going on at the town's department store prior to the infection. From what I can remember, there were a couple of hummers on display." Gilbert says.

"If there are hummers still there, then maybe we can use one of them to get out of here. One of the hummers was used by a famous racer called Ernie Nevada." Akiyoko replied.

"That man's a legend upon legends! I would take a bullet for that man." Gilbert says with glee.

"Yeah, well we're not here for the sights, Gil. Let's find that department st-"

Hank is cut off by a Charger followed by a Hunter that pummel and hack at him. Gilbert follows this by shooting them with his AK-47 (a temporary weapon until he gets his SPAS-12 back). Both the Hunter and Charger go down within a few seconds.

"DAMN IT! I hate these things! The won't even let you speak for a minute..." Hank irks.

"Well, talking while these things are around won't help your health, Hank. Let's keep moving while we can. That Brandon guy said he knows the way around here." Gilbert says as he help Hank up to his feet.

"Yes, I do know my way around this place. I've made this world, so I know every last inch of it. Almost. We'll need a map, however. I'm not sure where we're going from here on in." Brandon says, having heard the talk between Hank and Gilbert.

Meanwhile, the other eight survivors have entered the supermarket. They find that the shelves have been pretty much cleaned, save for just a few provisions.

"What? How could there possibly be this many supplies left? That's not fair!" the reporter says.

"Maybe some dumb-ass Boomer decided it would be funny to eat everything in sight." the biker said.

"That...or we're not alone in this place." the college girl said nervously.

"Besides, none of these zombies can rationally think anyways." the conman uttered.

"Well, let's just figure out where all of the food may have gone, and if somebody took it, we're following them." the veteran said.

They grab whatever is left on the shelves and move on out. They find food crumbs and the like on the road and follow the trail.

Back to the main survivors, they walk down the main street, which was a popular hang out for many people and socialites back when the days were infection free. Now, the windows for many of the stores are all smashed in and inside them, the stores have been ransacked and totaled.

They walk past a toy store. Yuki walks up to it and sees all of the toys inside the store. Most of the toys are either broken, mauled, or burnt. She begins to reminiscent on her first time ever receiving a toy.

_The year is 2149. Yuki is still a young girl at the age of what looks to be five years old. Yuki and her mother have arrived at a local toy store in Brandonopolis. Yuki's mother_ _asks for the manager of the store._

"_Ah, hello again, my good toy patrons! And how's your daughter today?" says the toy store manager._

"_She's just fine. Have you got the toy that she has wanted?" Yuki's mother asks._

"_Yup. Fresh off of the production line, and ready for an owner! Dolto Company sure knows how to make them!" the toy store manager says as he brings out a doll that is at least two feet tall. It has anime eyes, a vinyl body with a medium size bust, and neat clothes. Its eyes are blue-green and its hair is a deep blue-purple._

"_She's great!!!" Yuki says with delight as she marvels at the doll._

"_Glad you like it. It took me hours to get the clothing on, the props fixed up with Gigawaltz Wonderglue, and its hair smoothed out. It's a custom job from one of the guys I know at the company, and it's not just the way you wanted...it has something extra, my friend!" the toy store manager exclaims._

_He hands her the doll and she embraces it with love. "What name will you give her?" the toy store manager asks._

"_I think I'll call her....Yumi." Yuki says, as she hugs her newfound friend._

_Unknown to her, the doll looks up and smiles. She now had her own name, her own identity...more so...she had an owner now. It looked like this little friendship would last for a long time, as the doll falls into a "sleep", until the get home._

But did it last as long as Yuki had hoped for? No. She had lost Yumi once the year the infection was due to hit hard arrived, just months prior to her trip to Tokyothon 200...and the beginning of this disaster.

Yuki began to cry, but held her tears back. Now wasn't the time to cry over spilled milk. She didn't want to look like a baby, and she didn't want to attract the attention of a horde if she cried too loudly.

"Hey, Yuki! What're you standing around for? We have to keep moving!" Gilbert yelled to the mysterious little waif. She left the toy store with all due haste.

When she left though...something in the bargain bin moved... Something made of vinyl poked its head out... The doll had blue-green eyes and blue-purple hair...could it be?

She catches up with the group just in time to hear Brandon and Xavier discussing where they could possibly find the next nearby safe room.

"Okay, Xavier. Where are we going to go?" Brandon asks with a slightly annoyed tone.

"Hey, calm down, dude. I wasn't born in this place, and I've seldom been here on occasion. I've always been good with direction, so just hold on." Xavier said, though he was pretty miffed at the moment. He focused his mind for a minute or two, and then began to speak once again.

"Looks like our next safe house is in the Saint Marlona Christian Church. From the looks of it, it's pretty fortified, so if we had to hold out in there, we'd be able to do it with minimal fuss. However, we're still trying to get out of here, so don't get too comfortable in there. Let's continue working our way around the town. I'd hate to see everyone's partnership here cut short if we don't make it." Xavier said afterward.

"Fair enough. Let's move on and get to that department store, people!" Brandon replied. The group started to move forward. But then, a loud scream shot out through the darkness. The Horde was coming and was out for blood... The hundreds of zombies appeared from behind them and began the chase through the main street.

"Holy crap! RUN! FREAKING RUN!" Gilbert yelled, and the group took off like hell on wheels, popping zombies as they ran down the street. They soon saw an alleyway, with a dumpster and boxes piled high on top of each other.

"Get into that alley! The zombies may still be able to follow us, but getting over it should put some distance between us and the Horde!" Yuki yelled as they made a sharp turn into the alleyway. The group jumped onto the dumpster and then the boxes. The zombies struggled in their cramped space they were given. Hank did what came naturally: he threw a Molotov and burned the lot as they were trying to get out of the alleyway. Within seconds, a three hundred strong crowd of infected were smoldering behind the fence they just jumped.

Fredrick whistled in amazement. "Now THAT was a plan right there, Thompson!"

"Well, cramped spaces + a crap ton of zombies + Molotov = roasted freaks. Dumb zombies should know better than to cram school it into an alley and think they can clear out of there before I play with fire." Hank gestures.

"That doesn't take a rocket scientist to know THAT equation, Hank." Gilbert mocks. He stops short though and sees the church nearby, past the huge field of dandelions.

"There's the church over there! We just got to get across that field of dandelions and the rest is cake." Gilbert says.

"Just be careful, everyone. This area is wide open. You never know where, or when, a Special Infected can strike." Akiyoko says, notifying the team.

As they tromp across the field, a Spitter takes aim and fires at the group. Bob is the first to see the projectile hurling towards their direction.

"INCOMING HOT STUFF!!!" Bob yells, alerting the team to the Spitter's presence. They quickly move away from the puddle of acid as Yuki takes point with her hunting rifle. She pops several shots into the Spitter, and it falls dead, leaving behind a pool of acid running from its body.

"Just perfect. What we need are a few freaks to help us along." Brandon says. Another scream fills the air, as all the other Specials, and a massive Horde descends upon the group of eight.

"And just when we thought holding out was difficult...now we're stuck in the middle of the open, completely exposed, and we've got hundreds of zombies and specials after us. Plan, guys?" Xavier asks.

Brandon cocks his Tactical Shotgun and gets into a battle-ready stance.

His orders? "Kill all motherfrickers. That's my orders. OPEN FIRE!!!"

A massive firefight erupted as the Horde and Specials closed in on them.

Meanwhile, the other eight were still following the trail the group left behind, and now since the group was attacked by zombies, they were following the corpses they left in their wake.

"Whoever we're following, I guess they're well-versed in combat." the veteran said.

"In today's world, everyone here knows how to use guns, old man." the biker said.

"Quit being an ass. When your as old as I am, and when you've fought in as many wars as I have, you'd do well to know to keep practicing with a gun often. These folks have probably only learned in a few months of the infection hitting here." the veteran rebuked.

The bulky survivor sighed. "Okay, I get it."

They come to the alleyway, and they hear gunshots in the distance.

The conman whistles in amazement at the scene. "Damn. These zombies got cooked. It's like a moshpit." The air around the alley stunk of burning skin, and the fence was completely melted. The cardboard boxes were officially turned to ashes and soot by the fire that Hank had thrown. An explosion was heard somewhere nearby, followed by a Tank grunting in pain. More gunfire followed the noises. The dandelion field was now littered with various corpses of infected, some bodies blown in half, and others pretty much mutilated.

"Looks like folks folks over in that church cemetery could use some help. What say we give them the help they need?" the gym coach said.

"I agree, but I reckon we'd hurry up. They can't outlast that Tank completely." the mechanic said.

They run towards the church's collapsed wall, as the battle rages on...

Back to the main survivors, a Tank had inevitably showed its ugly face, and decided to cancel everyone's Christmas right before they got into the church for safety. The Tank's vital organs were pretty damn close to shutting down, but it isn't cooperating as it continues to chase after the survivors. Blood is continuously seeping through various wounds in its incredibly dense muscle mass. One of its arms have been blown to smithereens, half of its face was missing, and a good chunk of the front of its body was nothing but intestines, bone, and muscle; all dripping blood furiously. The Tank was also scarred from being burned, and was still on fire, roaring in fury as the flames licked at its ravaged flesh.

Judging how much he was roaring and how much damage he sustained, he wasn't going to let some survivors claim his life that easily. Due to all the damage he had taken, it was probably one of the most durable Tanks they have faced so far.

"How many more bullets until this thing dies?!" Hank yells.

"I don't know! This thing is like freaking nigh indestructible!" Brandon yells.

Suddenly, tons of bullets come out of nowhere and finish the tank off. It roars in pain one final time before falling face first, dead. The survivors wonder where the bullets came from. The answer was walking towards them.

"Is everyone okay?" the gym coach said as he holstered his shotgun.

"Yeah...I think we're good..." Gilbert responded, but they clearly didn't look the very least bit healthy at all. The group had been through hell. They were all limping and bleeding badly, and they certainly weren't going to make it much further. They had wasted all of their health packs, no thanks to the Tank and a horde that appeared during its assault. The only good news that came out of all of this? The Tank was now dead, and they were almost safe.

The conman spoke up. "You guys do NOT look at all well. I think we should get you guys inside that church."

Gilbert opened his mouth to speak, but what the conman said was true. They weren't healthy at all, and with the Tank attack, they were pretty much all seeing black and white.

"Okay, you win. We're banged up as far as we can get banged up. But before we do anything, what are your names?" Gilbert replied in exasperation.

"Well, first off, over here we have Bill, Francis, Zoey, and Louis. On this side, my name's Nick, and these guys over behind me are Coach, Ellis, and Rochelle." the conman said.

"Well, it's nice to meet you all. My name's Gilbert, and these guys here are Hank, Fredrick, and--"

Gilbert is cut short by a thudding sound. He looks back and sees Yuki, slumped on the ground as if she was dead.

"YUKI!" Gilbert yells in surprise as he runs over to her side.

"Hold on now, kid. She's passed out due to trauma. All of that blood loss has temporarily put her to sleep, but she'll come to in a few minutes." Xavier says.

Gilbert is worried about Yuki's condition, but he trusts Xavier with her. Xavier is the only one who has taken the least damage and still has a medkit with him. Xavier pulls it off of his back and begins to patch her up, but a Boomer appears out of nowhere and attempts to puke on the two.

Brandon doesn't waste a second. He literally tackles the Boomer and pins him to the ground. The Boomer nearly pukes, but Brandon stuffs one of his spare pipe bombs and stuffs it in the Boomer's mouth. Some of the bile got onto the pipe bomb, which sends an entire horde after it. The Boomer attempts to get up and chase after the survivors, but is being pinned down by the zombies swatting at the bile-covered pipe bomb.

"MOVE!!!" Brandon yells. Xavier hoists Yuki over his shoulder like a burlap sack and runs for it. The pipe bomb's beeping gets faster until it finally explodes, showering the area with bile, zombie parts, and loads of guts.

Everyone is surprised, but they recuperate quickly. Thanks to Brandon and a pipe bomb, the group is completely unharmed.

"We'd better get inside that church. We're exposed out here to zombies and Specials if we try to heal." Brandon says.

They turn towards the church and begin walking towards it. The lights, strangely enough, are already on inside.

"Why are the lights on?" Akiyoko asks.

"Perhaps there are other survivors holding out?" Bob replies to Akiyoko's question.

As they walk closer, they hear someone inside, muttering to himself. As they walk into the big hole in the wall, the guy inside hears their footsteps.

"Who's there?! Is somebody there? I've got a bell in here, and I'm not afraid to use it!" the man says in a panicked tone.

"Oh, great. Another crazy guy. It's like we've returned to Riverside already." Zoey utters to her dismay.

"I have a bad feeling about this... Everyone better be on your guard." Fredrick says.

Before they answer the door, they stock up on ammo, trade out their old weapons for new ones, and the other eight patch up the main survivors. Xavier uses his kit to prevent Yuki from bleeding out any further. She wakes up a few minutes later.

"What happened...?" Yuki said in a weak voice. She attempts to get up, but winces in pain when she does.

"Careful now. Your body's been through hell, kid. We'll try to protect you if an infected tries to get at you." Bill said to Yuki. She nods, and the group gathers around the door. Brandon's the first to knock on the safe room door.

"Go away! Nobody's going to get in!!!" the crazy church man says.

"Look, pal. We can make you open that god forsaken door. LET US IN!" Hank yells.

"Does it look like I will let you in? I'm immune! At least...I think I am..." the crazy guy replies.

"Jesus, just let us into the freaking safe room, you loony ass-clown!" Nick yells at the crazy guy.

"I don't care how much you guys want in here! I know you are not immune! I JUST KNOW IT!" the crazy guy taunts.

"Buddy, we're tired, we need somewhere to rest for the time being, and we are as immune as they come! We can prove it!" Xavier immediately fires back.

"He's right. And mister, if one of us dies out here, I **will** come in there myself and beat you to death with my gun!" Louis shouts.

"Your threats don't phase me! I don't care anymore! As long as I'm safe in here, I'll do this to make you _prove_ you're not infected!" the crazy guy yells at them.

Suddenly, the church bell had begun to ring, and a loud scream was heard in the distance. They were in some deep crap now.

"I'm going to tear that bell down and shove it up your ass!" Francis yelled as the Horde quickly approached the group with all due speed. The group opened fire as the Horde entered the church from every entry point possible. Half the survivors protected Yuki from infected attack while the other half took care of business coming up front. Strangely enough, some infected were just dying, as if they were being hit by a weapon as they entered the church.

A Spitter made an appearance and spat at the group around Yuki. They scooped Yuki up and were quick to move as the projectile sailed over their heads and landed in the spot they were just in. Ellis pulled out a baseball bat and clobbered the Spitter with it. He moved away from the corpse as soon as it hit the ground, making sure not to step into any of the acid it left behind.

Coach spotted some gas cans nearby, and shot them. They both ignited, sending the whole place up in flames, burning hundreds of zombies as they attempted to enter.

A Smoker stood amid the flames and spit out his tongue. He ends up grabbing Yuki and nearly pulls her into the flames if not for Rochelle giving the tongue a quick swipe of her axe. The whole thing slithered back into the Smoker's mouth, and a few seconds later it exploded in a cloud of smoke.

A second horde approaches the church, but a propane tank with a pipe bomb taped onto it drops down from the roof and attracts the horde to it. It explodes just seconds later, sending more zombie gore raining down from the heavens.

"Now where did that come from?" Gilbert asked in a confused tone.

"Hell if I know." Hank replies to Gilbert.

That's when something else fell from the roof. It looked to be a small doll like being. Yuki's eyes lit up like fourth of July fireworks as she looked at it.

"YUMI!" Yuki yells in joy as she runs towards her long lost doll. She grabs her up and embraces her, like when she was a child.

"It's good to see you again, Yuki." Yumi said.

"Is...that doll...actually talking?" Gilbert utters in astonishment.

"Yeah... I guess I should explain. This is Yumi, my old doll I received from the Dolto Company. I never knew where she went, but it looks like she ended up in a bargain bin somewhere. Where did you come from, Yumi? I missed you so much!" Yuki explains, then rejoices.

The reunion is cut short by growling from inside the safe house.

"I must be....*cough* Must be...*growl* Better safe...than...*scream*" the crazy guy utters...now becoming a victim of the infection.

Then...silence.

"Be careful. I really don't like the looks of this..." Bill says to the team.

Gilbert walks up to the door. He knocks once, then twice. No response.

He slowly opens the door...and when he does...there's nothing inside.

"Hey guys! It's safe in--*chokes*" Gilbert is cut short by a tentacle the grabs him by the neck. Every survivor shoots at it with all due haste, and it drops Gilbert. Gilbert runs out of the safe room in shock.

That's when _he_ climbs down from the ceiling of the safe room. The crazy guy isn't even human anymore. He walks out...no...slithers out of the safe house and towards the survivors. He now has the lower body of a serpent. His upper half is still as human as it's ever going to look, with the mass and diameter of the body becoming as big and thick as the lower half is. His arms are now just bone, and several grotesque tendrils have erupted out of his back. He's wearing a business suit and a fedora, but his face no longer has any eyes. His mouth...dear lord. His lips were gone, and all that was left was the inside of the mouth, teeth and everything with it. In one hand, he is holding a gigantic bonesaw.

Now they were up against another freak of nature. It had only one name now...and it was no longer human. It was, from this day, called Jorgenheim, The Christian Serpent.

{MINI-BOSS: Jorgenheim}

The mutated Crazy Church Man is now attacking you! Kill him to get into the safe house!

The now-mutant man opens the fight with a swing of his bonesaw, but the group ducks quickly to avoid getting decapitated.

"Open fire! This thing wants us dead? We'll give IT death!" Brandon yells to the team.

Jorgenheim spits huge meteor-like globs at the group, and they impact with such force, they make miniature craters in the floor of the church. However, the group dodges the meteors as fast as they can run.

It swings its tail around in hopes that it will hit the survivors and trip them up, but the survivors jump over his continuously spinning serpentine attachment.

"Predictable strategy. This thing can't do too much, guys! Pour it on!" Xavier alerts the team.

They let loose on Jorgenheim with all they've got, stopping occasionally to dodge an attack. They know that getting hit by anything could result in life loss, so they try their best to avoid everything he throws at them.

Eventually, Jorgenheim roars in agony, and falls to the floor, dropping his bonesaw, and transforms back into what he was before: a human. But his body is still, and there's no pulse coming from him, so he is now dead.

"What in the world is going on with these infections? That asshole almost choked me half to death!" Gilbert says.

"Don't worry. At least he's dead now. Let's get in that safe room." Akiyoko says.

They walk into the safe room. There's tons of supplies inside, great weapons, tons of food, and a huge map, all up on the second floor of the church.

Brandon whistles in amazement. "Either this guy was eagerly ill-prepared, or someone else must've set up shop beforehand."

They go up to the second floor, and see the map on the wall. Every area in Video Game World is crossed out with a red X on each part.

"Well, if we intend to get out of here, where are we going to go?" Gilbert asks.

"I heard that the U.S. Military has relocated to here to save its inhabitants. Lord only knows where they're at." Fredrick says.

"As for your question, Gilbert, I bet they're right here." Brandon puts his finger on an unmarked part of the map. The city of Rastonburg.

"Looks like that's our last resort. We'll have to cross quite a few areas just to get to Rastonburg." Brandon says.

"That's where the military is holding out at?" Yuki says.

"Apparently so. If we are going to get out of this hellhole, then we need to get to Rastonburg, on the double." Brandon replies to Yuki.

A massive scream is heard, signaling another horde attack.

"Oh, crap." Brandon says. "SOMEBODY SHUT THAT DOOR!!!"

Everyone goes down and tries to slam the door shut. The zombies are piling up against it and pushing to try and get in, but the group of 16 is even stronger and manages to shut the door tight before a single infected comes in. Everyone settles down afterwards.

"Phew. Next time, somebody please close the door on the way in..." Gilbert says in a tired tone.

* * *

CHAPTER CLEARED

We're safe...for now...

[Certain stats may not be entirely accurate, if at all.]

General Defense – Killed the most infected

Gilbert – 1,590

Yuki – 986

Fredrick – 732

Hank – 621

Brandon – 1,110

Akiyoko – 999

Xavier – 847

Bob – 411

Bill – 117

Zoey – 156

Francis – 109

Louis – 132

Nick – 143

Coach – 90

Ellis – 167

Rochelle – 56

Tank Slayer – Did the most damage to the Tank

Gilbert – 5967

Brandon – 4097

Akiyoko – 3000

Hank – 2345

Yuki – 1769

Everyone else – Less than 1000

Nothing Special – Killed the most Special Infected

Gilbert – 5

Bob – 2

Fredrick – 1

Everyone else – 0

Brain Salad Chef – Killed the most Common Infected via headshot

Yuki – 59

Nick – 47

Francis – 21

Everyone else – 0

* * *

This took me a long ass time, but at least I got through it, and now here it is. The first chapter of Campaign 1.5 is finally finished. I hope you've enjoyed it, and I hope you'll enjoy it some more.

Campaign 2...oh man, I can't wait to do this chapter. I won't spoil it for you, but I've been planning it for a while. It's gonna be a long one, that's for sure. Anyways. There's also some new infected on the way come the next chapter of the entire story

Anyways, hope you've enjoyed it. Sorry that it took so long.


	6. Death or Derailment: The Crossroads

Campaign 1.5 - Death or Derailment

Chapter 2 – The Crossroads

[Same Disclaimer, as always with every chapter.]

* * *

**The scene opens with the survivors still slumped up against either the safe door itself, or slumped against each other. They have just fended off a major zombie attack by shutting the door on the welcoming committee that was trying to enter the safe room. They faced, and killed, Jorgenheim, or should be said, the Crazy Church Man. They are almost to the department store in Saint Marlona.**

"Is everyone okay?" Gilbert asks with a tired tone.

"Yeah. I think we're all good..." Nick replies.

"That was...pretty tough." Gilbert says again.

"No kidding. I think we should rest for a bit before we venture out into the open again." Brandon suggests.

They settle down and rest for a bit. They take out the food from Yuki's knapsack and begin to snack on it.

"I ever tell you about the time when me and Keith set off fireworks during church? The priest was damn well angry after we torched him, his robe, and the entire church around us. Keith suffered even more burns on his body than ever before, and we had to get him to the hospital because..." Ellis launched off.

"We don't have time for this, Ellis." Coach mumbled through eating his food.

"Okay." Ellis replied.

There wasn't much interesting to talk about at the moment, so they decided to chill in peace. After several minutes, Brandon broke the silence.

"Where's our next destination?" Brandon said.

"Well, looks like we're almost clear out of Saint Marlona. The department store is somewhere nearby, but there's nothing but dirt paths and highways outside of the town. We better find a cliff or something to find the highest road, and then take it clear over to the department store. I bet we'll be meeting some obstacles on the way through, but that's nothing compared to what we've faced so far. I'm not sure what'll come and get us though." Xavier lectures.

"So, we'll have to follow the main road, and then make wild guesses as to where the cliff is, right?" Gilbert cuts in.

"That's almost right, except now we have a map to Saint Marlona. It covers the entire area even past here." Xavier replies.

"I guess this makes the rest of the trip a turkey shoot." Ellis says.

"I don't think it'll be that easy. Even if we do have a map, the entire thing is unmarked. We might wander for hours upon hours before we find the correct path." Bill follows.

"Look again, Bill. There's a huge cliff alongside one of these dirt roads. If we can find that road and follow the cliff until we find something we can climb up on, then we can find the highest highway." Xavier says, pointing at the map.

"Xavier's right, guys. We have to stay positive!" Louis says.

"Yeah, keep shining, Mr. Sunshine Beams. We're likely to get lost and die, just like "Dead Man Moosejaw" over here." Francis said.

"Francis, for your information, I have been through hell and back! I...well...I guess I should explain...how I was brought back to life..." Bill yelled at first, then his tone changed to melancholy.

_Georgia. A humble place to live life. A nice place...well, that's what it used to be. Until the infection came, that is._

_The group of three were still running from the infection as they got into the mall. Bill had died trying to protect them and giving them a chance to escape, and now that the three had helped four other survivors in the town, they had left_

_However, Bill was about to be brought back from the depths of the afterlife._

_He woke up, and saw a young, beautiful girl standing next to him. She had just used some healing magic to bring Bill back from the dead just in time. Because one of the survivors in his group was trying to honor him, his M-16 was gone, taken as a remembrance gift because they couldn't mourn him properly with all the zombies around the port. The bridge was lowered, and his friends were already in Savannah's Liberty Mall._

_He had but one thing to do. Either reach his friends at the mall, or die again trying._

_He picked up another M-16, and began his journey back into zombie hell._

_The girl made a soft smile and teleported away._

"That's all I can really remember at the moment. Who was the girl that revived me?" Bill said, coming back to the present day.

Not saying anything, but rather reading an Older Teen Rated Manga, Brandon points his thumb backwards at his wife. Akiyoko smiles at Bill.

"She was...my savior angel?" Bill says, dumbfounded at how some boy's wife saved him from eternal death.

"She's not called the 'Perfect Woman' for nothing. Back somewhere in 2009, I had wished for a chance to meet my dream girl on her home planet, the home planet being Worffton, on Christmas Eve. It was her sleeping place and...well, I'll explain more eventually. She's got tons of potential, and tons of abilities. Bringing somebody back to life is just one of many skills she knows." Brandon said, beginning and ending a story.

They finish their food up and prepare for the venture forth out into the rest of the infected town known as Saint Marlona.

They exit from the second floor, and get onto the roof. The area is overlooking the rest of Saint Marlona. Several houses dot the area off to the right, whereas some stores and restaurants line off to the left. The restaurants path is blocked off by barricades, which obviously means that's out of the question.

"Okay, so neighborhood with psychotic, fleash-eating homeowner committee members it is." Bob said, unnervingly.

"Hey, don't sweat it, Bob. It's not like I haven't had to kill my own friends at work when they denied getting a shot for the infection." Louis says, patting Bob on the shoulder, but Bob still looks rather uneasy.

They got down from the roof, and continued their journey. They walked through the suburbia, killing every zombie that got into their way.

They had to keep looking around for supplies and things to eat. They looked in as many houses they could, and found some weapons and some scraps of food they scrounged up while in them.

However, the survivors had to keep moving. There was still trouble abound.

Eventually, they got to another house.

"Check that house for supplies! Could be something useful in it!" Zoey yells to the group.

They run in and look around, but inside first, they find theirselves ambushed by a Hunter, Smoker, and a Tank, low and behold.

"Hell no! LOOK OUT!" Ellis yells at the group as the Hunter flies over his head and nearly pounces him. Coach does a full tackle on the Hunter, crushing some of its ribs in the process, thanks to Coach's bulk. The Hunter get back up, even though its body is now missing parts of its ribcage. It hacks at Coach, but with a well placed axe to the head, it falls to the ground, dead.

Meanwhile, Gilbert contends with the Smoker. It launches its tongue forward, but Gilbert barely dodges it and grabs it. Gilbert yanks on it and the Smoker stumbles towards Gilbert, who then socks the Smoker with a couple of jabs and body blows. The Smoker then stumbles backwards, dazed and confused, as Gilbert dives forward and puts it into a Lou Thez Press. He punches it into submission, and all those punches put it out of its misery, making it explode in a cloud of smoke.

Fredrick, Hank, Zoey, and Bill take on the Tank, with the others joining in after they've done their share of heavy lifting. The Tank opens by throwing a concrete slab, but the group dodges the incoming projectile. They give it everything they've got, and unload on the Tank.

Hank's shotgun clicked empty all of a sudden. "Bullcrap! These things don't have very much ammo!" He heaved his pump action into the air and brought it down on the Tank's skull, effectively stunning it and buying the team a few needed seconds to deal some damage. The Tank wasn't phased for long, as it recuperated and punched Hank for good measure; Hank having been beating down on the Tank seconds before it came back to the real world.

Hank went flying, but Yuki flawlessly caught him in his flight. Somehow, Yuki seemed stronger that your average girl...

"Thanks, Yuki!" Hank yelled. He pulled out his Magnum, and began to fire powerful rounds into the hulking zombie.

The Tank was too focused on Brandon at the moment. It swung and missed Brandon. Brandon was now gone, and the Tank was as dumbfounded as ever. Brandon was on the Tank's back, having hitched a quick ride on the Tank's fist, and he began to stab the hell out of the Tank with his machete, riding him like a Jockey, and dealing damage, slowly, but surely.

Akiyoko ran up to the Tank and, with a dual wielding of shotguns, she put both barrels on top and on the bottom of the Tank's small skull and finished him off. Blood spewed out of the Tank's now destroyed head, and its body fell to the ground seconds after. Brandon hopped off the Tank's body. Everyone had just survived hell outside this house, and they were going to continue through it too.

Inside the house, they found more ammo, upgraded rifles, and the like. They took whatever they could grab up, then began to head out into the house's backyard. Ahead of the backyard, there was a big, open area.

"Be careful everyone. This is wide open territory. You never know where something will strike." Fredrick said to the group.

"Did that dandelion field not give any sort of note on that? We heard what was happening on our way towards you. Hell, we even saw the hell you had to go through! That field and alley, even the road leading us to you, was littered with hundreds of zombies. We know to keep an eye out, you old, geriatric asshole! " Nick yelled at the old soldier.

"Nick, please, calm down. It's not his fault that happened. We know we have to be careful in the open." Akiyoko says to the raging conman.

"Fine. I know... [sigh] Let's just keep moving." Nick said, a bit flustered.

Not three feet out of the backyard, they heard sobbing, a sign that a Witch was ahead of them in the field.

"Great. A Witch. Just what we don't need." Xavier scoffed.

"Okay. Before we find her, who has a shotgun with them?" Brandon says. Nobody speaks up. Not one person had a good shotgun right now, all except for...

"You have a combat shottie with you, Gilbert. How about you take on the Witch?" Brandon suggests.

"WHAT? Why me? I may have a shotgun, but I'm likely to be reduced to nothing but blood and organs if I tussle with her!" Gilbert cries out, obviously terrified of the thought.

"Don't worry. If you do end up startling her, just run towards us. We'll try to shoot her down." Brandon tries to calm Gilbert down. Eventually, Brandon gets him to calm down, and convinces him to take on the Witch.

Gilbert creeped out towards the open field and saw the Witch sitting there underneath a wood post lamplight. Gilbert was starting to shake uncontrollably, and he was sweating with such frequency that he could make a river out of his own body's nervous excretion. He couldn't keep his gun straight, and he stumbled once or twice walking towards her. To put it in a short version, he was a nervous wreck. He now knew what Witches could do to their victims, and he certainly didn't want to be the next one on the list.

He was in range of firing at the Witch, but if he was to cr0wn her with a headshot, he'd have to get up close and personal. He continued to get closer. The Witch was surprised for a second, and looked at Gilbert. He seized up in terror, but the Witch went back to its regular grind immediately afterwards.

Back at the backyard of the house, the group is watching him get closer to the Witch. Yuki looks rather worried, and so does Akiyoko. It's clear they don't want to see him die, but Brandon's the one who put him up to it.

"You think he'll be fine?" Louis says nervously.

"I hope so. He looks like he's about to wet himself thoroughly, so I'm beginning to have my doubts. In that case...Ellis, you still have your baseball bat on you, right?" Brandon said, then asked.

"Yeah, I do. Why, do ya need it for something?" Ellis replied.

"Ten bucks will say yes in a minute here..." Brandon says.

Gilbert has gotten in pretty close proximity with the Witch, so much that she is beginning to get really irritable, and making loud growling noises of sorts. Gilbert looks about ready to go crying home to mama, but he quickly pops one shot at the Witch. It angers her and she begins to run after Gilbert in a blind rage. Gilbert get a head start, and runs towards the group.

"Ellis, baseball bat, NOW!" Brandon yells to Ellis. Not one to argue with him, Ellis hands it over.

Gilbert was certainly glad that he was blessed with the good fortune of being the college track star, because it was helping him in this situation, and even the Witch couldn't keep up. Gilbert dove into the group and Brandon stood out in front. The Witch's ruby-red eyes filled with rage and focused her sights on Brandon. Brandon winded up with Ellis' baseball bat, as if he was going to hit a baseball coming in at high speed.

"I better pray to the gods that I still have whatever baseball skill from my younger years left." Brandon says to himself, as the Witch closes in on him with speed that would even alarm Maurice Green. Brandon swings the bat as hard as he could...

CRACK! Two cracks were heard simultaneously. One was from the bat impacting with the Witch's skull. The other was from the Witch's head itself snapping off of its neck. The bat hit the Witch with such force that its decapitated head was sent flying off into the night. With that done and over with, the Witch's headless body fell to the floor, lifeless and limp.

The group looked back at Gilbert, who was terrified out of his wits.

"I-is she dead...?" he stuttered.

"Yeah, she is. And not a single person was harmed...well..." Brandon looked at the headless corpse. "Almost everyone." Brandon rolls his eyes at his own joke, then signals the team to move forward. He hands Ellis his baseball bat, and they move along.

Eventually, at the side of a dirt path road, they find an open sewer. The road is blocked off by several dozens of cars, trucks, and the like, and the woods are for too thick to walk through.

"Oh, for the love of...why does our path always have to involve a sewer?" Nick blurted out.

"It's not like we haven't gone through other sewers trying to escape this infection alive, Nick. So, unless you're looking forward to a painful death at the hands of these freaks, I suggest we get down there. Besides, I see nothing but woodland from here on in, and there's no way we'll be able to find the department store unless we take the underground route. Since Brandon's come through the sewers on more than one trip into the Hephaestus Core and Workshops deep within this world's crust to do checkups now and then, he should be able to let us know when we're underneath the roads by that huge cliff." Xavier says.

"Xavier's as correct as he is ever going to get from here on in. I know he's almost always right, and I always go through the sewers to Hephaestus to do so. So let's get down there...things are about to get messy..." Brandon said.

They drop down into the darkness. It's a bit stinky down there, but they try to ignore it. The walls are basically musty and have mildew on them. The water is brown, but there is no sign of excrement anywhere in the water.

"See, nothing resembling any sort of turds whatsoever. Now let's move it, people." Brandon says.

They begin to move through the sewers as fast as they can, following Brandon, who is currently in the lead. Small tidbits of infected are seen throughout the sewer, and the group simply blasts through each group as fast as they can.

It felt like walking through a maze. The trip through the sewers, with all the zombies around, felt like hours were passing fast, but they had only really been in there about thirty-five minutes at the most. Time seems to slog along as you run around in a sewer, really. Then again, it feels as if time flies at a fast as hell pace.

Eventually, Brandon led the group to the tunnel that contained the ladder they needed.

"There's our ladder! We've made it at last!" Zoey said.

"You aren't so bad at leading us out of a rat's hole like this, I guess." Nick said.

Brandon snarked at his comment immediately after it. "Don't get cocky, Nick. I'm sure you've had to try and lead you and your friends there out of a fix like this. If anyone here calls me a sewer rat, I swear to GOD I'll shoot the ever-loving hell out of who does dare to address me as such." he said following Nick's comment.

"Okay, jeez. I didn't mean to offend you." Finishing that statement, he said in a more quiet tone, "Nobody can take a joke anymore, can they..."

After the short argument, the group goes up the ladder one after the other. Brandon shoves the manhole out of the way, and takes a deep breath of fresh air as he pokes his head out of the sewer. He looks around. Except for a few infected dotting the area the group was about to enter, the coast was clear.

"All right, guys. It's safe enough out here. I'll mop up any opposition while you get up here." Brandon yelled to the others, who were waiting for the go-ahead.

Brandon gets out into the open and clangs a frying pan he found earlier on the rocks the manhole was near. This attracted the attention of the infected in the immediate area, but Brandon improvised and fired several bursts of rounds into the infected running towards him with his FN SCAR-L without much trouble following suit. A Hunter was among the group running at him trying to get the drop in on Brandon by hitting him, but it too got blasted by the packing stickman.

The group is finally out of the sewer by the time Brandon is done with the short mob rush. They look up and see a high cliff. Higher still is a crap-ton of highways overlapping each other at the correct heights and not too low either. Tunnel after tunnel has been dug into the sides of the cliffs entrapping the road they now stood on, with bridges connecting each tunnel respectively. Cars among cars were piled everywhere, as if a Tank came through one day and decided to play Jenga with them and knocked down the whole pile afterward. They have made it to the legendary landmark of Saint Marlona: the Crossroads. All they had to do now was find the correct road and make their way to the department store, and they would be home free for the time being.

The only obstacle they'd face was just that: finding the correct road that lead to the department store.

"Well, we're here. But now what are we supposed to do? Rephrasing that, where are we supposed to go?" Hank said, a little bit dumbfounded at how many roads there were.

"Okay, I've seen plenty of highways overlapping one another, but this? This is ridiculous." Coach said.

"You should all be thankful I have a modified map of the Crossroads. Otherwise, I'd say we're in some grim duff." Xavier said, pulling a map out of his lab coat.

He lays it down on the ground and studies it. On the map, there is an overhead view of all the roads of the Crossroads. There are just as many roads on it as there are above their heads. Out of all of the possible paths, only one is highlighted with a bright shade of scarlet red permanent marker, and it leads all the way to an outline of a building that says "Saint Marlona Department Store" in the outline.

"So that's our path? How convenient. I guess that's better than my plan." Francis said.

"Let me guess, you were going to say we should just pick a tunnel and hope it's right, huh, Francis?" Bill scoffed at the biker.

Francis rolled his eyes, having been figured out from the get-go. Xavier forwarded the team to go into the tunnel he pointed to, and so began their nearly endless trek into the Crossroads. Okay, not really endless, but you know what I mean.

It felt like hours were passing with sonic speed once again, but they were making progress as they walked through tunnels and onto highways and bridges. They got higher ad higher off the ground the farther into the Crossroads they got. Eventually they came to a traffic block on a partially broken bridge with a strangely located bulldozer in the middle of it. It was still intact and the keys were in. There wasn't going to be any other way around this massive traffic jam of defunct cars, semis, and tankers, so they had no choice but to start it up and put the bulldozer into full gear. The whole thing roared to life and lurched forward. It knocked cars out of the way and shoved everything aside. It finally fell through the hole in the bridge, taking some cars and an entire petroleum tanker with it. It was a loooooooooooong fall, and as soon as the cars started hitting the ground, they hit the ground with such force they exploded in fireballs, with flaming debris shooting up into the air and raining back down. The petroleum tanker went last and erupted with a catastrophic sounding BOOM, sending tons of scalding hot shrapnel flying high into the air.

Unfortunately, with all the explosions and the activation of the bulldozer, this got the attention of the Horde, naturally. The zombies ran out of the tunnel they were facing, crossing one of the exposed support beams and then attacking the group afterward. The Horde doesn't last long, and after several minutes of taking down zombie after zombie, an entire four hundred and fifty five strong zombie war party was dispersed.

Far below the broken bridge, the entire area where the tanker hit was in flames, and still burning bright and white hot. The trip wasn't done yet. The group filed together over the bridge's only intact connection beam, and made it into the next tunnel. They kept moving until finally, they see the roof of the department store some several hundred yards away. But ahead...there's a blockade, with all manner of cars and vehicles in front of it. The road they are on has a plasma cannon facing the blackade.

"Whoo, now THIS is a cannon!" Louis exclaims once he sees it.

"And this thing is our ticket past this blockade? Bah, who am I kidding? How'd this get here in the first place?" Hank says.

"Hell if we should know. I think we should just shoot now and ask that question later. All in favor of clearing blockade say 'I'." Brandon says. The group says it in unison.

"The choice is unanimous. But I am going to tell you this right now, it'll get us some more attention, and that's not very surprising." Brandon says.

Brandon types in the code to fire, and hits the green button. Almost instantly, it fires a shot and annihilates the barricade in a flaming explosion. The Horde screams out once more to get in a few shots at the group. As the zombies pour in, a Jockey emerges from the wreckage, on fire and yelping in pain. Xavier spots it before it gets in jumping range, and fires several rounds into it before it dies off.

A Boomer quickly finds the group and manages to puke on Nick, whereas Francis retaliates and fires at the Boomer. With a couple of well placed bullets, the Boomer blows up, leaving only its lower half intact. The zombie Zerg Rush rushes at Nick, but they don't make it too far, considering they are outnumbered in power terms.

After a few more minutes, the five hundred strong infected crowd is toast, and the fire surrounding the road ahead has been dispersed.

"Roadblock's cleared, people! Let's get a move-on!" Francis yells to the group. Without any hesitation, they jet off towards the department store.

Once there, they find that the concrete stopper facing the department store roof has been destroyed partially. They step off the highway, having spent at least an hour and fifteen minutes traversing the winding Crossroads. The moon was still high in the sky, as if it hadn't moved several inches from its spot.

They walk into the door there and go down the short flight of stairs. Waiting at the bottom of the stairs off to the right of the dark stairwell, with the lights on inside, is the safe room, being the attic of the store. Inside is some more weapons, some more health kits, and various other supplies there in the safe room.

They close the door, glad that they are safe once again. But they sure as hell know that things aren't over yet. They may be inside the department store, but they still have to get the cars ready to go.

"Well, that was the longest road run of my life." Ellis said, obviously exhausted.

"At least we made it, right guys?" Louis said in response, still full of hope as ever.

"Yes...at least we have made it. But what will we do come the next round of zombies?" Yuki asks.

"One simple answer, my darling. We kill and we escape. I have a feeling this is going to become a regular grind as we go along..." Gilbert replies.

CHAPTER CLEAR

They're safe...for now.

General Defense

Gilbert – 1, 405

Yuki – 1, 300

Brandon – 1, 245

Everyone else – Less than 1,000

Witch Hunter

Gilbert – 100

Brandon – 900

Nothing Special

Gilbert – 6

Brandon – 4

Nick – 2

I apologize if this took longer to get out than most other chapters, but I've been getting a bit sidetracked by listening to music and watching videos, but now it's finally finished. Here's chapter 2 at last. One more chapter to go for this campaign, and then we'll move on to the second campaign of the story. I hope to see more publicity than this story is currently getting, but hey, I'll wait and see what comes in reviews.

Also, check out my other fanfiction, Rapture in the AfterYears, if you get the chance. Thanks for reading!


	7. Death or Derailment: Dept Store Finale

Campaign 1.5 – Death or Derailment

Chapter 3 – Department Store Finale

[It's the same disclaimer, people. Don't sue. :P]

* * *

**The group has, at last, made it to the Saint Marlona Department Store outside of the town. It wasn't easy getting here, and it probably won't be nearly as easy getting out of there without a scratch. But their trip through the once peaceful Christian town was nearly done. All they really had to do now was get the two eight seating hummers and get the hell out of there.**

The group sits exhausted in the attic of the department store. They were at their goal, but were they across the line yet? Nope. The group took five for a bit, and ate some more food.

Brandon looks at all the items piled in the room. He sees a pitchfork and some strong, taut cable. He takes out his shotgun, then smiles to himself. He immediately gets to work, combining these things.

Meanwhile, the group is just chilling out. Gilbert is reading his manga, Yuki is taking a quick nap, and everyone else is snacking away.

"Hey, does everyone remember when we went through that mall in Savannah? This is just like that! I remember when we took Jimmy Gibbs' car and drove it out of the front door. That was cool. Hate that we had to leave it behind when we came across that traffic block of abandoned cars going to Whispering Oaks... I HATE this apocalypse!" Ellis says.

"Calm down, son. I'm sure the car is okay. Maybe..." Coach says, trying to be reassuring.

Gilbert then looks up from his manga, and sees Brandon tinkering about with the items. He gets up and goes to look at what he's doing.

"Brandon, what are you doing?" Gilbert says.

Brandon turns around. He is now holding his shotgun...with a pitchfork attached to it by use of steel cable.

"Uh, wow. What is that thing supposed to be, anyways?" Gilbert asks in confusion.

"This, my friend, is the Farmer's Bayonet. You stab the pitchfork into any zombie, and fire away! Guaranteed kills, save for possibly Witches, and, obviously, Tanks." Brandon says, slinging his new combined weapon over his back. He then pulls another pet project off of the shelf. It's an canoe oar, now with two revved chainsaws strapped to each end of it.

"This is the Goar of Spilling. Two chainsaws on each end, and you can flip it around and tear into some undead. The results are very, very messy, but it's a fun, over-the-top way to kill your victims." Brandon demo-speeches again as he turns the chainsaws off and slings it over his back with his newly acquired (and modified) SPAS-12.

The group then finishes up their food, gets their weapons ready, and head on out.

They emerged out into a nearly pitch-black hallway, with the light coming from the safe room being the only source of light. They passed storage rooms and bathrooms, checking in some of them for supplies as they went down the dark corridor. At the end of it, there was light coming through a door.

"Go there!" Yuki said.

The team ran to the door, and were greeted with white fluorescent light beaming from the ceiling above the door. They walked forward a bit before coming across a catwalk. Judging from the height they were at in the store, they were on the 23rd floor, the least visited area in the department store, but for good reason. This floor was mostly for storage and maintenance, not shopping.

"There's an elevator, guys! Let's get into it!" Louis calls out to the group. They run to the elevator and hit the button for the first floor. The doors close as infected bunch up around the elevator casing. The group converses for a little bit.

"Okay, so we've made it to the department store. As far as I'm concerned, there's no one here but ourselves to help us fuel those cars up." Xavier said.

"Since the Hummers are still here, I don't think there should be doubt, really." Gilbert says.

"In case you were wondering, sport, this entire store is filled to the brim with ZOMBIES. That, and where are we supposed to find gas cans for those things in a department store anyways? Those beasts must take about maybe twelve gallons each, and I highly doubt we'll be finding that many in the first place." Nick shoots back.

"Uh, dude, I think I should ratify that. Hummers, at the most, only really take eight gallons, right? That means we should be finding sixteen cans in total around the store, give or take." Hank says, demonstrating his knowledge about cars.

"As much as I'd hate to say it, Hank's right. Sixteen gallons equate to half a gallon of what a tank in older wars guzzled." Fredrick replied.

"All right, fair enough. As per usual with car shows and things like that, the fuel tanks will likely be empty so that people don't end up running off with them during the show. We'll have to split up into two groups." Akiyoko says to the group.

"Oh, I get it. Well, I call Brandon's group to go with me! And I call Nevada's car to drive. Are we clear on that?" Gilbert announces.

"We know, Gilbert. So that leaves Bill, Nick, and the rest with each other. They get the other hummer." Brandon says.

"Now that crap's all sorted out, we better find those cans, so as soon as we get to the bottom floor, get ready to move!" Coach says, closing the conversation.

The elevator finally hit the first floor. The door opened, and things were about to get heated.

"Go man, find some gas cans!" Ellis yelled to both groups as they took off.

/!\ Collect the gas cans and fuel the Hummers to rescue yourselves!

Following the doors opening, a huge scream was heard seconds later. It was on!

Gilbert saw a gas can immediately after the doors of the elevator shot open. He ran over to it, and grabbed it up. "I've got this one!" he said, as he ran to Nevada's car and began filling it up. Once the gas stopped coming out of the can, the gas tank of Nevada's car was now 1/8th full, but they've only just begun their gas run.

Meanwhile, Rochelle and Francis were carrying cans of their own to the other unmanned Hummer. They were being trailed by hundreds of zombies, which Ellis and Bill were covering their escape. The rest were taking point and shooting down any Specials that came within three feet of the two.

A Smoker snagged Francis, making him drop his can, and began to choke him. A couple of rounds from Nick's magnum put it down, however, and Francis continued on his way.

Rochelle had made it to their hummer and began to pour the can into the car, but a Charger intervened and began to pummel her into submission. Ellis took point with his auto shotgun and killed the Charger with several shells to its face.

They pour their cans into the hummer, and they're already a fourth of the way there. Only six more cans to go.

Cutting back to Brandon and Co., the group encountered a Boomer, and one half of the group got slimed head to toe. There were two cans being held by Akiyoko and Yuki, and the zombies were chasing her alongside Xavier, Hank, and Bob (who with Yuki, got slimed too), to their misfortune.

Thankfully, Brandon pulled out the Goar of Spilling he made and tore into the zombies surrounding the group, effectively making a hell of a mess, but otherwise clearing a straight path to Nevada's hummer. Now that another two cans had gotten dumped into the hummer, that made three cans for Brandon and Gilbert's group. There was just five more for them to gather up.

Back to Bill and Nick's group, Bill just found the last can on the first floor. Unfortunately, standing back up again and turning towards the general direction that the hummer was in, a Hunter and Jockey were in the way. Bill doesn't waste even two seconds. The Jockey leaps first, and the Hunter following, with enough propulsion to put it ahead of the Jockey. Bill holds the can up like a shield and successfully rolls the Hunter off and pins him to the ground. The Jockey jumps again, but Bill acts quickly, gets up, and shoves the Hunter in-between him and the Jockey seconds before it leaps onto Bill. The Jockey mistakenly hits the Hunter instead and is now stuck carting one of his own kin around. Bill laughs a bit at the sight before picking up his gas can and pours it into the unmarked hummer. Three for both sides, five more to find on each end.

After Bill poured his can in, tons of gunfire was heard somewhere on the third floor. Nick and the others gathered around and looked up. Concrete went flying, indicating that a Tank was in the vicinity. Akiyoko leaned over the railing and called down to the other group.

"Here!, Take these cans and fill your hummer the rest of the way! We will catch up with you soon!" she yells down to the group. Upon saying that, she tosses five more cans down to them, and continues contributing to the assault on the muscle-bound monstrosity.

"Yo, thanks Akiyoko!" Ellis yells, but obviously no response from Brandon's wife, thanks to the Tank's interference. They don't argue. Bill, Zoey, Ellis, Nick, and Coach all grab up a gas can and fill their car the rest of the way. After all five cans went in, the car was all ready for driving.

"All right, guys! We'll see you on the road!" Francis yelled to Brandon's group, as they got into the hummer and hit the gas.

Brandon, with his group having just finished off the Tank looks over the railing, and sees their hummer speed out the emergency exit doors, blowing a hole in the door frame as it races out the small hallway.

"All right, they got out safely. Let's find our last cans and get the hell out of here." Brandon says. A massive scream floods the currently devoid department store as they move to the second floor. Another mob of infected come flooding out the doors and begin to hinder the group's progress. Brandon thinks of a plan.

"Find those cans! Yuki and Gilbert, you take those two over there! Akiyoko and I will get those on the far side of the store. Xavier, take Hank with you so that he can cover your escape for the last can on the third floor! The rest of you, get to the car and wait for us!" Brandon orders to everyone.

The group splits up. Brandon and Akiyoko goes left to get the cans on in the southwestern-most corner of the store. Gilbert and Yuki take the catwalk in front of them to get the cans across from them. The group issued to the car guarding takes the stairwell to the first floor, while Hank and Xavier go up to the third floor to get the end-be-all can.

Gilbert and Yuki don't encounter too many problems in getting the gas cans they were assigned to. They got the cans and raced down the the first floor, jumping on the roofs to the info booths to get down. Yuki put hers in first. When Gilbert started to do the same, Yuki caught sight of the Jockey that was forced to team-kill the Hunter that Bill shoved off. It was leaping towards them in a blind fury, and it was en route to Gilbert.

"Out of the way, Yuki. I'll take him. Get my can in." Gilbert said, as he stood motionlessly in front of the incoming Jockey. It leapt for him, and Gilbert countered the Jockey by pulling a Tilt-A-Whirl Driver as soon as it hit his head. Gilbert landed on the ground, effectively killing the Jockey. By the time the jockey was dead, Yuki finished up with the gas can, and was clapping with joy at Gilbert. He looked at her, and she blushed and turned away. Although confused at her behavior towards him, Gilbert knew they were just three cans away from escape. The cover group was just finishing off a massive group of zombies that ambushed them on the way down the stairs, and were now guarding Nevada's hummer.

Meanwhile, Brandon and Akiyoko were also ambushed by a Charger, Boomer, and Smoker, who were hiding until they were in the secluded spot they were in at that moment.

"Honey, get ready to propel me. I'm gonna do something a little crazy...but if it works, it'll help the both of us." Brandon says, staring danger down and about to take it by the horns again. Akiyoko crouches down, as if she knows what he is going to do.

Brandon runs towards the wall, begins to run up it, and then backflips off of it. His feet perfectly plant onto his wife's hands, and she throws Brandon out onto the catwalk, propelling him forward. He gets his shotgun out, and sticks the Boomer with his pitchfork attachment. It explodes as soon as it is stabbed, covering Brandon in bile, and attracting an entire horde. Brandon reacts quickly to this and throws a bile bomb. A sickly green cloud billows up and stands there. The infected ignore the bile coated Brandon and swat at the green cloud. As Brandon is quickly regaining sight, the Smoker shoots out his tongue and wraps it around Brandon's palm. Brandon feels it snag on, and pulls the Smoker over the railing. He immediately swings the Smoker around over his head and knocks all of the infected distracted by the bile over the railing, killing almost all of them. Once Brandon knocked them all off the railing, he cuts himself free of the tongue using a combat knife. The Smoker flies against the wall with such force, it explodes, effectively killing it off.

The Charger then popped out of its hiding place and did what it did best: it charged Brandon. However, Brandon took a football player's stance and began pushing and digging in, shoving as hard as he could, until both Brandon and the Charger went over the railing. They fell two long stories to the store's floor, and it ended in a sickening SPLAT. Akiyoko, her face full of shock, peeked over the now broken railing...and smiled in relief. Thankfully, her husband was still standing. The Charger wasn't so lucky, since its skull was splattered all over the ground. Akiyoko sprouted her wings and hovered down with both gas cans in tow.

"How'd I do?" Brandon said, a little punch-drunk from the impact.

"Beautifully, with a scarlet colored victory as usual." Akiyoko smiled, running her hands along Brandon's face.

"Yep. But we better get these cans to the car." Brandon said, getting up and off the Charger's corpse. They dumped their share in and looked to the third floor.

"Okay. All that's left to do is hope that Xavier and Hank can get that last can without any flukes..."

Unfortunately, the last can was the least of their problems, as Hank and Xavier were under siege from a Tank that had appeared out of nowhere. They were getting beaten up pretty badly, and without the help of everyone else, it looked like they were doomed.

"Son of a...! Aki, get me up there at once!" Brandon yelled to his wife. She followed instruction , sprouting her large wings and carrying Brandon up to the third floor.

Once up there, Brandon yelled to the two. "You two need some air support?" Brandon said.

"Brandon! And just in the nick of-WHOA!" Xavier said, cut short, as a rock sailed past him, just barely missing him. The Tank wasn't ready to back down yet, as it had another rock in its other hand and threw it at Akiyoko, as if it anticipated that she'd bring Brandon up alongside her. Brandon opened up on the Tank, and so did Hank and Xavier. It only took two minutes to bring down this Tank.

"You guys okay?" Brandon asked the two.

"Broken. Fine in an external sense, but we feel like hell, nevertheless..." Xavier said, obviously out of breath. "Anyhoo, Hank's got the last can strapped to his back."

"Excellent. Just grab hold and hang on...we'll get you guys healed up and we'll be on our way." brandon said. The two jumped towards Brandon and he got a hold of both of them (holding onto each other). Akiyoko then hovered over to the car and settled them down. Hank filled the car with the last can, and at last, it was ready to go!

/!\ The hummer is fueled up! Get in the car now!

"All right! Let's get this thing revved up and get the frack out of here!" Brandon yelled as the group hunkered into the car.

Yuki, who was sitting by a column behind the car, got up and started to go and get in...but suddenly, a robed hand clamped around her mouth. She screamed through the hand, but, obviously, she was muffled. Her eyes filled with tears and fear as she was dragged away by a anonymous freak in a purple robe.

The group didn't take notice, however, and drove the hummer off of its display stand. They drove the car through the door. "HOO-HEE-HOO!" Gilbert yelled in delight, as he drove the hummer of Ernie Nevada through the door to the department store, and honking the horn (which was specialized to honk to the tone of La Cucachracha, or whatever it is called) in pure excitement. They were out of a peaceful town turned hellish...but there was still quite a ways to go before they reached their destination.

* * *

THE SURVIVORS HAVE ESCAPED!

* * *

Well, that closes off Campaign 1.5 at last. With that all settled and done, it's time to get ready for Campaign #2!

Be prepared, everyone. "Zombiethon" awaits you...thanks for reading.


	8. Zombiethon: The City Square

Campaign 2: Zombiethon

"Hell has brought a convention with it, alongside zombiefied cosplayers. Put these undead otakus back in their place."

Travel to a anime convention lost to dozens upon dozens of infected and signal a chopper for rescue from zombiefied costumes, capes, and masks.

[Same disclaimer. Not beeg sooprize. :P]

[Author's Note]: If this took a long time to get this far into the story, I apologize. I don't really work on this nearly as often as I thought I would. But that's what happens when you have a ton of other things pulling interest away from one subject. But here it is! The chapter I couldn't wait to make! Here we go...

Starring...

Gilbert Rochester

Hank Thompson

Fredrick Manson

Yuki Everlife (M.I.A until later)

Brandon Allen Cash

Xavier Calhoun Nottingham

Akiyoko Beldandy Chachamaru

Robert "Bob" Calico McAllister

William "Bill" Overbeck

Francis

Louis

Zoey

Nick

Ellis

Coach

Rochelle

And eight **more** survivors. The character count is beginning to get rather high, isn't it? :P

/!\ ATTENTION! /!\

This campaign will be introducing some new infected I've created. You'll have to wait until the next chapter though.

* * *

Chapter 1: The City Square

**The scene opens up to show that Nevada's Hummer has been knocked clear off the road. A large, flaming crater has appeared in the middle of the road, but the hummer had stayed intact. The survivors, or one half of the survivors, although a little bruised and battered from the experience, they survived the ordeal, but there was nothing but grass and light woodland apart from the road that lay ahead of them. They weren't going to follow the road. They had more important things to worry about at the moment. Finding the others was their top priority for now. The moon has sunken lower in the sky, but it's still otherwise the middle of the night.**

"What...happened...?" Gilbert says, still reeling from the explosion that blasted them off the road.

"I'm not so sure..." Hank said, just as dizzily.

"Looked like a missile, a heat-seeker at that, no less. Barely missed it too. From the looks of the sky, I'd say we better begin to move. Night is going to end in a few more hours." Xavier said, having shaken off the dizzy feeling.

"Xavier's right. But the time isn't my concern. We need to see if the others survived. Maybe they shared the same fate as we did?" Gilbert said, much to his concern.

"Considering that a missile hit us twenty-five minutes before we lapsed into a coma, I'd say you're not far from the truth." Brandon said in response.

Only a few things survived the explosion, such as most of the un-upgraded weapons and melee weapons. They grabbed whatever did survive the explosion, and headed on out.

Infected were out in the open, amongst the remains of other cars. Given how many cars looked like they were supposed to be in a junkyard, destroyed, charred, or otherwise, it looks like they weren't the only ones to get hit by missiles. Although they looked uneasily at the cars, they shot up the zombies, and continued onward.

They wandered aimlessly through trees and past other roads until they saw another hummer similar to theirs. This one, however, had been hit directly by another missile.

"See, what did I tell you? I can't say they're dead though." Brandon said.

"How? Their hummer's been totaled!" Gilbert said in panic.

"Cool it, Rochester. Pay attention; there are no bodies to be found. So that probably means they're alive. If they're trying to search for us, then they;re looking in the wrong direction. We'd better keep going that way." Brandon said, point a finger out in front of them, signaling to keep moving forward.

They leapt over the road's side railing and continued. At the bottom of a hill five minutes later, they found them.

"Hey, guys!" Gilbert called from the top of the hill.

"There you are! We were looking all over for you!" Zoey yelled to the Brandon and Gilbert group.

"Good to see you guys are in one piece." Brandon said, as he slid down the hill with the others.

"Same here. Man, that missile nearly got us. Had we not jumped out, I don't think we would've survived the explosion. We looked everywhere for you guys!" Louis said to Brandon and Gilbert.

"Well, at least we found each other again, so let's move." Brandon said.

Nick notices something wrong with the group before they begin to move. "Uh, guys, I think you might want to do a head count. Looks like you're missing a guy."

"ROLL CALL!" Brandon yells. His and Gilbert's group lines up. Brandon counts up how many there are in the group...and finally notices that there's only seven people in their group.

"Oh no." Brandon said, as the sudden fear and realization swelled up in his face. Gilbert looked at Brandon's face in horror as it became clear.

"Yuki is missing." Those three words was all that was needed to send Gilbert into a panic.

"No! Oh, man! Where is she?" Gilbert ran around, trying to look for her in desperation.

Then, he thought back to the store a couple of hours ago. "Oh, dear lord in heaven, tell me we didn't leave her at the store!"

"I don't think she was left at the store. Smart money on the subject says that if she was asleep and we didn't notice she was there, then it would count as such. The last I saw of her was by that pillar as we were leaving. I do remember seeing her get taken away by some freak in a purple robe." Brandon said.

"Somebody with a purple robe? Sounds like something fishy to me." Hank replied.

"I've seen things close to that. Hell, I gambled with some of them. From the description you gave us, I guess we might be dealing with cultists." Nick followed up.

"Whoa, wait. You said "cultists". Like, the freaks that believe in some sort of psychotic religion or something?" Gilbert questioned.

"Yup. Precisely. Because they were heavily sedated, or rather, too busy trying to think about their god, I got all of their money and prized possessions pretty easily." Nick said, thinking back on all those times he jinxed cultists out of their belongings and cash. Looking back on they way his life was currently going, he wished he hadn't gotten all of those "so-called" cursed artifacts; he would've been fine with just the money. His life was bad enough, why make it worse with some cursed skulls and tiki masks? Knowing the cultists he dealt with a long time ago, he almost figured that even the cash that he got was cursed as well.

"Well, if it's a cult we're going after, how will we know what the cult is related to? How will we know what to identify them by?" Fredrick replied.

"Well, last I saw of the symbol on the back of the robe, it looked a little something like this..." Brandon said as he drew a symbol that looked a little like a mandala with a large game controller in the center of it. There were also two anime girls one each side of the controller.

"...I know that clan." Gilbert said, after seeing what Brandon drew in the ground.

"What? How would you know what that symbol stands for?" Zoey said in response.

"I once researched these guys on a subject we did in college, prior to the infection of course. They're called the Occult Otakuists. Basically, the group is composed of a bunch of fierce dorks, geeks, game nerds, anime fans, otakus who spend more time in their life reading manga, and gonks. They have a habit of capturing beautiful girls, get them to dress up, and basically sing for them. They worship their 'idols' endlessly. There's hardly ever any sort of leadership in the cult, and if there is, about ninety-five percent of the time it's going to be a morbidly obese nerd with a fatter nose and pimples all over his face. Even then, they don't follow orders like they're supposed to, and they will almost always try to usurp their leader for kingship, and even THAT doesn't work out too well. Only several people have been able to kill their kings and rule with iron fists. And one king was made because of a freak accident that resulted in a fluke victory at the end of a battle royale that determines who will be the next royal heir to their "throne". Considering that a germ just wiped out the entirety of Video Game World, I highly doubt there's any of the nerds left to even keep the cult going. But there's a lot of fuss trying to get a girl to come with them when they find one they deem to be 'the fairest of them all'...why was there so little fuss capturing Yuki?" Gilbert expositioned for a couple of minutes.

"Well, Motor Mouth, to cap off that wall of text, Yuki was waiting for us to get done. The guy who snuck up on her didn't make a peep, right? She wasn't expecting that to happen." Xavier said.

"Of course. I'm just wondering...a well-coordinated nerd? And only one got Yuki without a hitch in the plan? Something's up..." Gilbert said, suspicion rising in his voice.

"Either th' nerd was in the mood to act like a ninja..." Ellis began.

"...or someone else is helming the entire operation this time around." Nick concluded.

"Nick may be right. I don't know who is leading these guys, but if a nerd can get in, kidnap Yuki, and get out with no problem at all, then we have a serious issue here..." Gilbert said, wanting to get to the bottom of this little mystery.

"Don't let the thought get to you, Gilbert. If we can find the cultists, we can find Yuki. But we won't make any more progress by standing here and pondering this, so unless we'd rather try to make a crime scene and have Francis knock it over wondering how to spell 'FBI'...and get our brains bashed out by a horde, we better split and get to...wherever our next destination is." Brandon says.

"HEY! I can spell FBI, thank you very much!" Francis yells in retort. A short laugh from Bill, Louis, and Zoey follow.

"What are you guys laughing at?" Francis says, snapping his head back at his chortling teammates.

"Nothing." they say in unison, still holding their smiles and laughs back.

"Xavier, where are we going to go from here?" Brandon asks the strange looking scientist.

"Well, I can't say I've been in this area of Video Game World too often. But if we can find the road again and keep heading due north on it, we'll eventually find a city nearby." Xavier said, taking his well thought out sense of direction. He pointed down through a small piece of woodland and the group followed. Infected were, once again, in their path, but they went down with the same efficiency as before.

Eventually, after several more minutes of forest spelunking, the group saw the road again, and even better...they saw the city's skyline. They were close to it.

"Yeah! We're almost there!" Gilbert said with an excited tone.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves now, boy. There's a citywide population of infected and Specials between us and the safe room. I wouldn't be throwing a celebration until we're safe, sound, and away from the infection's creations..." Xavier said, with a bit of a grim tone.

"Oh...sorry." Gilbert said, a bit guilty.

They walked in silence until Gilbert saw a billboard. It had a variety of anime and game characters on it. In big, bright blue and white letters at the bottom of the picture, it said "TOKYOTHON 175: In town this month!"

Gilbert's eyes lit up when he saw it. "Oh man! Tokyothon! Damn, I've been going ever since I was 5!"

"Jeez...I already have Ellis to contend with here...I don't need Gilbert, of all people, on top of Ellis' chatter..." Nick thought to himself in exasperation.

A few minutes later, they were looking around in the city for supplies. Meanwhile, Gilbert was still giddy to know that Tokyothon was here, but thanks to the infection, he didn't know if there would be time to go. He just kept talking about it. "Did you guys know that Tokyothon started somewhere back in 1984? It's been the longest running convention for 175 years, and counting!" Gilbert said, rattling off his knowledge of Tokyothon and its history.

"Okay, can we PLEASE STOP TALKING ABOUT THAT ANIME CONVENTION? Judas Priest, Gilbert. I thought Ellis was bad enough...but you're just adding to my mood." Nick said, his tone dripping with a combination of frustration, anger, and dead seriousness.

"Sorry, man. Jeez. What side of the tracks did you walk off of today?" Gilbert said.

"Yeah, calm down, Nick. It's not worth killing each other over just someone talking. Which reminds me of a time me and my buddy Keith..." Ellis began.

Nick, at wits end, had it with listening to Ellis throughout their trip to New Orleans and the North, and with Gilbert adding to his irritation, he pulled out both of his Desert Eagles and pointed them at both Ellis and Gilbert.

"Look, kids, I am NOT going to take this story time crap, and this damn anime convention junk anymore. I am going to tell you guys to shut up right now, or I am placing a bullet between both of your eyes..." Nick said, his face now filled with rage.

"Whoa, dude...calm down...we don't want this to escalate into a friendly fire free for all." Gilbert said, now surprised.

"Oh, really? And you're the ones telling me to calm down? You guys will not shut the hell up! If you'd do that just for one minute or so, I wouldn't be doing this now." Nick said.

"But we aren't the enemy here, Nick..." Ellis tried to say. But he only had so much time to say it in, because as soon as he opened his mouth again, Nick began to shoot at them in a blind fury.

A few blocks down the street, Brandon and the others are looking for food, ammo, and weapons. They certainly got lucky on that; there was tons of it.

He whistles in amazement. "Wow, I'm sure whoever was here before us, they were loaded to the brim. Given the amount of blood coating the walls among other things, I'll guess they died fast after setting up." Brandon said.

But their scavenging wouldn't last nearly as long as they hoped for, because at that moment, they heard gunshots firing wildly where Nick, Ellis, and Gilbert were at.

"What in the...? Come on guys! We need to get over there and see what's going on!" Brandon said to his group. They didn't hesitate, and ran alongside him.

They got to the shop the three were in, and were surprised to see Nick, of all people, shooting at both Ellis and Gilbert. Nick was yelling in rage...and then he looked at Brandon...who was now rushing at him. That's when he got socked in the face, and was knocked to the floor.

"Hold him down, guys." Brandon ordered, and Bob and Xavier held Nick down, with Akiyoko disarming him of his firearms. Brandon pointed his shotgun down at Nick.

"All right, man. You're crossing the line now. You have five seconds to tell me why you're firing upon them for, or else your face is gonna be loaded with a nice helping of buckshot." Brandon said.

"These motor-mouths over here are bugging the hell out of me for the last few minutes!" Nick yelled in frustration.

"Does that give you any authorization to shoot them both up for no reason at all? Where have your senses gone? Brandon countered.

"Maybe not, but I'd think we'd be better off without these idiots with us!" Nick fired back.

"Oh, really? And you're saying that to one of your teammates who has accompanied you through New Orleans, to the bitterest end? Hell, he's done more for you than possibly anyone else has. Why don't you give it a rest?" Brandon said, not wanting to make this any uglier.

Nick got up and threw Bob and Xavier off of him. He immediately yanked Bill's M-16 out of his hands and pointed it at Brandon. "Look, I don't care what you think. I would rather leave them here for dead than travel with them, talking about anime convention this, and Keith that! I'd love it if you guys would help me kill their asses here and now!" Nick said, his anger rising in his voice. He rose Bill's rifle to eye level, and Brandon did the same with his shotgun. "You're a sick man, Nick..." Brandon said, lowering his shotgun, but Nick still kept Bill's rifle at the same level, ready to place a bullet between Brandon's eyes.

"You think I'm really going to order my friends and the others to shoot Gilbert and Ellis? Really? Stop and think about this, Nick. Sure, some people will come off as annoying. Granted, there have been some people in my life that I have had wanted to kill because the irritated the hell out of me. But if you kill someone that you find annoying, you're no worse than the infected. That only really makes you take a step towards being a complete monster, and crossing the line now won't help matters. I'm sure there are already some people in your lifetime that abscond you for some of your misdeeds. Why lose our trust, here and now, by killing two allies, all over the fact that they won't keep quiet? Isn't that good enough for you? Huh?" Brandon said, pretty much blowing Nick away.

Nick stood there for a moment, contemplating what he just said before Brandon followed up. "And killing me too will not resolve a damn thing. It will only make things worse than they really need to be. We've helped you so far, Nick. Don't make a bad guy out of yourself over them." Brandon finished.

Nick stood there, and finally responded with a deep breath.

"Okay...I understand. You win, Cash. Opening a wound further won't help me any more than what I've done with my life. I swore that once the infection is off the face of the earth, I was done with crime. Guess I nearly committed another one out of my anger. Thanks to you, I'll be keeping that promise." Nick responded, his tone now more calm and level-headed than it was minutes before. He turned to Gilbert and Ellis, who were ducked behind a counter minutes before, had poked their heads over the counter.

"Guys, I'm...sorry for my...little outburst there. Can you guys...forgive me?" Nick said, with an apologetic look on his face.

"Hey man, don't worry. We forgive you." Ellis says.

"Yeah. I'm sorry if we do bug the hell out of ya, man. It's just something we do. Besides, I can't help it if I love anime. And Ellis...well, he can't help talking about his friend and his misadventures. But we forgive you for nearly turning us into swiss cheese. Just promise you won't flip out like that again, man." Gilbert says.

"Trust me, I won't. I could only take so much of that. I guess that'll teach me. I almost riddled you guys with lead, and nearly got fed buckshot for my trouble. Payback's an asshole, but it happens." Nick said, having gotten over his rage.

"I'm glad we could sort this all out. A few minutes longer and this may have turned into a bloodbath. But now that we have that issue out of the way, we need to focus on our main objective: finding where these Nerds have hauled Yuki off to. If we keep dwindling around and twiddling our thumbs, we may never get out of this place. We better find that store again, stock up, and then haul ass. We cannot afford to lose time right now. Let's move on out, people!" Brandon said

With that, they headed back to the store they found the supplies in, stocked up, and head out. More infected stand in their way, but because they're sticking together and acting like a team squad, they make short work of the zombies.

They soon hear gunshots nearby. Somebody was still alive...and fighting the infection too.

"It's coming from over there, in the city square!" Xavier pointed out.

They ran to see who it was. Amid the hundreds of zombies was a young woman who looked to be about thirty-two years of age with brown hair and brown eyes. Her hair was stylized in a way that it looked like she was an Old Japan Era princess (to put it in shorter terms: a Hime Cut). Her physique was pretty well defined, and she was wearing casual clothes. Firing madly into the crowd with an assault rifle was a shop owner, slightly over-weight and balding. He has a mustache the same salt-and-pepper color as his balding hair. He was wearing usual manager garb, an apron (you know what I'm talking about if you've seen some grocery shop register keepers) over his regular clothes and tie. Right behind him was a man in his late teens. He was wearing armor of sorts over his leather jacket, and a football helmet over his head. He had light brown hair and a small trace of a goatee on his chin. He was killing the zombies with excellent use of a sword. And near the woman was a fifteen year old kid who was stuck in the 90's, fending off the zombies with a chainsaw.

"More survivors! Thank goodness!" Louis exclaimed.

"We'd better help them before things get really messy." Bill said afterward.

Taking point, everyone made their shots count, and they made sure to miss the other survivor group they were defending. A minute passed, and there was barely and infected left alive to be a complete threat.

"Whoa, dude! Is that, like, a rescue squad?" the skate kid said.

"Sorry, kid. I'm afraid we're trying to escape ourselves." Hank said.

"Aw, crapola. Oh well. Thanks for the save, guys." the armored man said.

"We though we were toast for a minute there..." said the store manager.

"Guys, calm down. Although I should say that we may have been able to take them if we kept on them, we appreciate the help you gave us. I must ask you, have you seen my daughter?" the young woman said.

"Can't say we have, miss. If she's young, then it may be likely that she's been devoured by the infected. Though if you can give us some details, we can figure out who it is..." Gilbert spoke up.

"Well, last time I saw her, she had red eyes...pale skin...and blue-greenish hair..." the woman said.

"That's Yuki!" Gilbert said, to his surprise. "You're...her mother?"

"Why...yes. Yes, I am. My name is Chie Vermillion. I once emigrated here to seek bigger and better things. But now that this infection is around, I've been trying to get my daughter to safety, and you found her! Where exactly?" Chie said.

"Believe it or not, nearby where we started our escape from the infection: Laine City. She came running towards us in tears. I promised to protect her as much as I could. To her, we're like her guardians." Gilbert said.

"She has a knack for always trusting those who can be trusted. Where is she now? Is she with you?" Chie responded.

"Uh, that's the bad news here. We just recently lost her to a bunch of geeky cultists." Gilbert said, though his tone wasn't too happy about it.

"What? What do you mean you lost her?" Chie said in a panic.

"Whoa, calm down! We've been trying like hell to find where she's being held hostage at! At the moment, I haven't a clue where we are able to find her." Gilbert said.

"Well...I don't know. Can I trust you to find her? In other words, who are you?" Chie said, now a little calmer.

"My name is Gilbert Rochester. These guys here are Hank, Fredrick, and...well, Yuki would be with us, but as you know, she's been abducted by nerds of the occult kind. Back here is Brandon, Akiyoko, Xavier, and Bob. And these two groups are composed of Bill, Zoey, Francis, Louis, Nick, Ellis, Coach, and Rochelle." Gilbert introduced.

"Nice to meet you all. As you know, I'm Chie, and over here, this is is Frank Erholtz, the toy store manager me and my daughter was good friends with prior to the infection's spread in this world. Over here is Butch Harlow, the "tank" of the group, figuratively speaking. And over here, we have the teenage sharpshooter, Randy Meltzer." Chie said, pointing to the toy store manager first, then the armored greaser, and finally, the skater kid.

"It's good to meet you all. We always could use some extra hands in defeating the infection. We'll help you find your daughter, Mrs. Vermillion. We'll just have to find some way to get out of this square first..." Brandon said.

Just then, a bright light shone down onto all of the survivors. It's the same news helicopter that was looking for survivors in Laine City, and it had caught sight of the survivors at last!

"Hello down there! Are some of you the survivors that came from Laine City?" the chopper pilot said.

"Yes, we are! We have been trying hard to escape to somewhere safe!" Gilbert called up to the pilot.

"Well, you're looking in the wrong place then. You all need to get to Rastonburg! I heard that the military is holding out and waiting for more survivors! I can help you get out of here, but I need you all to find somewhere suitable enough for me to evac you!" The chopper pilot called back.

"Can't you come down here and pick us up?" Chie called to the pilot.

"No can do, miss! A ground rescue is going to be far too risky in case the infected attack! You need to get to a tall building and get to the top of it. Only then, I will be able to get you out of here!" The chopper pilot responded.

"In that case, how are we supposed to get out of the city square then?" Frank called up.

"There's a barricade in the road leading towards the metro station to the tall building! Use this!" The chopper pilot said as he threw down something square and plastic. Brandon caught it. "Plant that C4 on the base of that statue. It should be tall enough to reach the barricade, although I should recommend that you do not stand in its path when it falls! Use this detonator to make it blow up!" he continued as he threw down the detonator. Brandon caught it as it fell.

"Hey, thanks!" Gilbert said.

"Don't mention it! I wish there was more that I could do to help you, but this is all I can do for now! Good luck, survivors, and take care! I know when you've gotten to the building!" the chopper pilot said as he flew off to wherever he was going.

"Well, let's plant this thing and find that metro station." Brandon said.

They spent a few minutes getting the plastic explosive to stick to the base of the statue, but once they did, they were all set.

"All right, Brandon. Light it up." Gilbert said. Brandon flipped up the cap and pressed the button. The statue's stone base exploded spectacularly. It sent the entire thing toppling down on top of the barricade in the middle of the road ahead, destroying some cars in its path. But with the explosion and the resulting crash of the golden statue, it alerted the horde.

"Ger ready!" Chie yelled to the group.

The group unloaded as many shots as they could into the crowd. Blood spilled absolutely everywhere on the pavement. Amongst the crowd was a Spitter, who popped off a shot at the group. They moved when they felt the searing pain begin to increase in their feet. Randy caught sight of the Spitter and, with a well aimed shotgun shell, blasted its head clean off, leaving only just a floppy stump of what was once its neck.

Disaster struck near the end of the horde. A Tank, flanked alongside a Charger, was running towards the group. Butch had wisely held onto one of his bile bombs and threw it in an arc. It sailed over the ever-thinning crowd of infected, started to dive in its arc, and nailed the Tank, smack-dab in its head, blinding it and covering it in glistening green bile. The Charger lucked out, as it charged the group unrivaled when the infected turned their attention away from the survivors to the Muscle Point brute covered in smelly vomit. The Charger bowled the entire group over, and caught Bob in its path. Frank rushed over and, with a well placed Body Avalanche, he knocked the Charger aside somehow. If a Charger could make an 'oh crap' face, it probably did it at the moment Frank lifted the Charger off the ground, over his head, and sending it into the ground head first, splattering it's head all over the group. Frank wasn't going to let working in a toy store and approaching middle-age decompose his wrestling prowess.

Meanwhile, the Tank had regained sight, but was more or less okay after trying to punch away his team-killing comrades. He ran at the survivors, in hopes to get some shots in, but he was in the yellow at that point, and it wouldn't take more that just a minute or so of concentrated gunfire to bring him down. The Tank played it a little more tactical, throwing objects from a distance, rather than a run and die approach. He managed to incap some of the survivors, but they caught onto his game after a minute. With sneaky tactics, they brought the Tank down after that.

"All right guys, we've survived that. Let's get over that shattered statue and get on our way." Brandon said, ready to move again.

They stepped over the hundreds of zombies that littered the street before them, and walked past the flaming wreckage of cars and trucks that were in the way of the statue when it came down. The barricade was thoroughly wrecked; this meant they could get to the metro station now.

They made a few turns on the streets before finally seeing the safe room door. The metro station was probably right behind the room too.

As soon as they got in, the shut the door tight.

"Whew. We have a missile blow up a hummer and barely miss the other, then we have one of our own nearly TK, and then we meet these guys and finally end our run through this town with destroying a monument in the square. This is getting crazier by the hours." Gilbert said, once again tired, but excited about what had happened.

"Well, whether this will keep getting over the top or not is not of our concern. We are probably one step closer to Yuki, and that's what matters. I know that if there is one thing that I have learned from my experiences as the commander of the Brandonopolis Army, it's five words..." Brandon said, pausing for a beat.

"...no one gets left behind." he finished. Gilbert was happy they weren't going to forget about her, and that speech from Brandon encouraged him to keep fighting harder.

Especially for the people he cared for.

* * *

CHAPTER CLEARED.

They're safe...for now.

* * *

It didn't take me long to finish this chapter, but it's time for the real deal. Time for the core area this campaign is centered around. Stay tuned for chapter 2!


End file.
